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4 




YOUNG WASHINGTON. SURVEYOR. 



True Stories 



OF 



Great Americans 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 

TELLING IN SIMPLE LANGUAGE SUITED TO BOYS AND GIRLS, THE 
INSPIRING STORIES OF THE LIVES OF 



George Washington 
John Paul Jones 
Benjamin Franklin 
Patrick Henry 
Robert E. Lee 
George Peabody 



Abraham Lincoln 
Ulysses S. Grant 
Jas. a. Garfield 
Robert Fulton 
Cyrus W. Field 
Thos. a. Edison 



By the Famous Writer for Young Americans^- 

AND Thomas Sheppard' Meek 



richly illustrated with 
Six Beautiful Lithographs and Original Half Tone Drawings 

by eminent artists 










Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1897, bjr 

W. E. SCULL, 

in the office 01 the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

All rights reserved. 



ALL PERSONS ARE WARNED NOT TO INFRINGE UPON OUR COPYRIGHT BY USING EITHER THE 
MATTER OR THE PICTURES IN THIS VOLUME. 



INTRODUCTION. 



There is nothing which our boys and girls so much love to read or 
have told to them as true stories of the lives of great and noble people. 
This is what this book does. It deals especially with the early life of 
each of twelve great men. It shows what were their natures and 
their habits when they were boys. It tells about their mothers and 
fathers and their homes ; it tells of the circumstances which surrounded 
them and relates scores of incidents of their boyhood days, their daily 
doings, their jolly sports, their trials and difficulties and how they met 
and overcame them. It shows us what books they read, what schooling 
they had, how they came to be great and famous men and the wonderful 
things they did in the world. This volume really composes twelve books 
—each one a separate and complete child's life of a great man. 

Every boy and girl who reads this inspiring volume will want to get 
out and do something in the world. It is as charming and entertaining 
as a fairy tale, but every word of it is true history written in easy lan- 
guage for the boys and girls of America. 

11 



CONTENTS. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON— His Boyhood Days and How he Became the 

Father of His Country 17 

JOHN PAUL JONES — The Plucky Little Scotchman who Removed to 

America and Became Captain of our Navy 32 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN— The Poor Boy, the Noble Man, the Preserver 

of the Union 45 

ULYSSES S. GRANT — The Farmer Boy and the Hero of the Greatest 

of Modern Wap^ qq 

ROBERT E. LEE — The Noble Boy, Brave Soldier and Model Man. The 

Idol of the South 74 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN— The Candlemaker's Son who, with His Kite 

Discovered Lightning to be the same as Electricity ... 90 

PATRICK HENRY— Who From a Farmer Boy Became a Lawyer and the 

Famous Orator of the Revolution 112 

ROBERT FULTON— The Thinking Boy. The Builder of the First 

Successful Steamboat l;53 

GEORGE PEABODY— The Boy Clerk who, When he Died, Left ISIillions 

TO Charity. America's First Philanthropist .... 147 

THOMAS A. EDISON— The Greatest Electrician of the World . . 163 

JAMES A. GARFIELD— The Boy on the Canal Boat. The Second Martyr 

President 182 

CYRUS W. FIELD — The Persevering Boy, the Man who Laid the At- 
lantic Cable 196 

12 



List of Illustrations. 



George Washington's Inaugural Procession 17 

Young George NVashington Riding a Colt 19 

General BradJook's Defeat -1 

George Washington Crossing the Delaware. ... 24 

General Washington at Valley Forge 26 

George Washington's Inauguration 2S 

George Washington's Bedroom, Mount Vernon, 

in which he Died 30 

John Paul Jones as a Sailor Boy 33 

John Paul Jones' Jlen at Sea 34 

J. P. Jones Approaching Whitehaven 3G 

J. P. Jones' Men Ashore — Whitehaven 38 

British Captain Surrendering Sword 43 

Abraham Lincoln's First Home 45 

The Boy Lincoln Studying 48 

Abraham Lincoln the Wrestler 49 

Abraham Lincoln, as Hired Man, Telling a Story 51 

Abraham Lincoln Keeping Store 53 

Abraham Lincoln on the Flatboat 56 

Abraham Lincoln Entering Richmond 57 

Ulysses S. Grant's Childhood 61 

Ulysses Grant after the Battle of Belmont 63 

LTlysses Grant at Shiloh 65 

Ulysses Grant at Windsor Castle 67 

Ulysses S. Grant in Japan 69 

General Grant's House, New York, IS85 71 

President Grant's Funeral Procession 72 

Robert E. Lee as Cadet..' 74 

Young Lee Riding in Front of " Stafford," Va. 76 
" Lee always to be found where the fighting was 

the fiercest" 78 

Captain Lee at Cerro Gordo 80 

General Lee Fortifying Richmond 83 

"He waved his sword abrve his head and 

dashed to the front " 86 

Franklin's Kite Leads the Way to the Modern 

Use of Electricity 90 

Ben Franklin Moulding Candles in his Father's 

Shop 93 

Franklin Slipping his Contributions to thePaper 

under the Office Door 96 



Old-style Printing Press 101 

Independence Hall, Philadel|)hia lUG 

Dr. Benjamin Frankhn as MiuLsler to France.. 109 
FrankUn's Grave, Corner Fifth and Arch Sis., 

Philadelphia Ill 

Patrick Henry '. 112 

Patrick Henry Shooting a Doer 115 

"Often at the country parties he jilayed the 

fiddle for many a jolly ' Old Virginia 

Reel' " 116 

' ' Many a day you might have seen Patrick 

plowing among the stumps in his ' New 

Ground'" 120 

A Typical Virginia Courthouse in the Days of 

Patrick Henry 127 

An Old Virginia Mansion, common in the Time 

of Patrick Henry 129 

Development of Steam Navigation Following 

Fulton's Discovery 133 

Robert Fulton 1 37 

What You Would See To-day at a Steamboat 

Landing on the Mississippi River 141 

"Chicago," one of the "White Squadron" 

Warships of the United States 143 

Model of a Modern U. S. Man-of-War 146 

George Peabody 147 

The Bullock-Hoe Perfecting Press 155 

Memorial Hall, Harvard College 157 

Chapel of Yale College 160 

Thomas Alva Edison at Four Years of Ape. . . 163 
The Birthplace of Thomas A. Edison, at Milan, 

Ohio 165 

Thomas A. Edison when Publisher of the 

" Grand Trunk Herald," Fifteen Years Old 170 
Shop in which the Fir.st Morse Instrument was 

Constructed for Exhibition before Congress 175 

Listening to the Phonograph 1 79 

Thomas A. Edison at Fifty Years of Age 181 

President James A. Garfield 182 

Garfield's Birthplace and the Home of his 

ChUdhood 184 



13 



Full-page Color Plates. 



^ Young George Washington', Surveyor. 

John Paul Jones, First Captain in the U. S. Navy. 

^ Abraham Lincoln, Rail-splitter. 

'' U. S. Grant on the Field, Last Tear of the War. 

, On the Eve of Gettysburg — General Lee Directing the Battle. 

i Thomas A. Edison in His Laboratory. 

14 




The Inspiring History 



OF 



George Washington, 



First President of the United States. 



DO you know what the twenty-second of February is ? It is the 
birthday of George Washington. Do you know who George 
Washington was? He was the greatest and best man that ever 
lived in this dear home-land of yours, which you call America. 

He had no little boys or girls of his own, but he has always been 
called " The Father of His Country." Do you know why people call him 
that? Let me tell you how he got this name. 

Many years ago, on the twenty-second of February, in the year 1732, 
a little baby was born in a comfortable-looking old farm-house down in 
Virginia. This baby was named George Washington. 

His father was a farmer, who planted and raised and sold large crops 

2 (17) 



18 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

of tobacco in the fields about liis house. These fields were called planta- 
tions, and George Washington's father was what is called a jilanter. 

Tlie name of George's father was Augustine Washington. His mother's 
name was Mary Washington. She was a very wise and good woman, 
and George loved her dearly. 

When George was a very small boy, his father died and he was brought 
up by his mother in a nice, old farm-house on the banks of the Kappa- 
hannock Eiver, just opposite the town of Fredericksburg. Ask some 
one to show you just where that is on the map. 

George was a good boy. He was honest, truthful, obedient, bold and 
strong. He could jumj^ the farthest, run the fastest, climb the highest, 
wrestle the best, ride the swiftest, swim the longest, and "stump" all 
the other boys he played with. They all liked him, for he was gentle, 
kind and brave; he never was mean, never got "mad," and never told 
a lie. 

His mother had a sorrel colt that she thought very much of, because 
it came of splendid stock, and, if once trained, would be a tine and fast 
horse. But the colt was wild and vicious, and people said it could never 
be trained. One summer morning, young George, with three or four 
boys, were in the field looking at the colt, and, when the boys said again 
that it could never be tamed, George said : " You help me get on his back 
and I'll tame him." 

After hard work they got a bridle-bit in the colt's mouth and put 
young George on its back. Then began a fight. The colt reared and 
kicked and plunged, and tried to throw George off. But George stuck 
on and finally conquered the colt so that he drove it about the field. 
But in a last mad plunge to free itself fiom this determined boy on its 
back, the colt burst a blood-vessel and fell to the ground dead. 

Then the boys felt worried, you may be sure. But while they were 
wondering what George's mother would say, the boy went straight to the 
house determined to tell the truth. 

"Mother,"' he said, "your colt is dead." 

" Dead ! " said his mother. " Who killed it? " 

"I did," said George, and then he told her the whole story. 

His mother looked at him a moment, then she said : " It is well, my 
son. I am sorry to lose the colt ; it would have been a tine horse, but I 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



19 



am proud to know that my son never tries to put the blame of his acts 
upon others, and always speaks the truth." 

So you see, that early in his life, this boy was one to be depended upon. 
This story, too, shows you that besides his being so truthful and honest, 
young George Washington did not give up trying to do a thing until he 




YOUNG WASHINGTON RIDING A COLT. 

had succeeded. He was bound to tame that fierce sorrel colt, and he 
stuck to it until he had conquered the animal, instead of letting it 
conquer him. 

He loved the woods, and he loved the water. He wanted to be a 
sailor, but when he saw that his mother did not wish him to go away to 
sea, he said : "All right, mother," and he staid at home to help her on 
her farm. 



20 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

When he was sixteen years old he gave up going- to school and became 
a surveyor. A surveyor is one who goes around measuring land, so that 
men can know just how much they own and just where the lines run 
that divide it from other people's land. 

This work kept George out of doors most of the time, and made him 
healthy and big and strong. He went off into the woods and over the 
mountains, surveying land for the owners. He lived among Indians and 
bears and hunters, and became a great hunter himself. He was a fine- 
looking young fellow then. He was almost six feet tall. He was strong 
and active, and could stand almost anything in the way of out-of-door 
dangers and experiences. He had light brown hair, blue eyes and a 
frank face, and he had such a nice, firm way about him, although he was 
quiet and never talked much, that i)eople always believed what he said, 
and those who worked with him were always ready and willing to do 
just as he told them. 

When he was a boy it took a brave man to be a surveyor. He had to 
live in the forests, in all sorts of dangers and risks ; he had to meet all 
kinds of people, and settle disputes about who owned the land, when 
those who were quarreling about it Avould be very angry with the sur- 
veyor. But young George Washington always won in the end, and his 
Avork was so well done that some of his records and measurements have 
not been changed from that day to this. 

He liked the work, because he liked the free life of the woods and 
mountains. He liked to hunt and swim and ride and row, and all these 
things and all these rough experiences helped him greatly to be a bold, 
healthy, active and courageous man, when the time came for him to be 
a loader and a soldier. 

People liked him so much that when there was trouble between the 
two nations that owned almost all the land in America when he was a 
boy, he was sent with a party to try and settle a quarrel as to which 
nation owned tlie land Avest of Vii'ginia, in what is now called Ohio. 

These two nations were France and England. Their Kings were far 
over the Atlantic Ocean. Virginia and all the country between the 
mountains and the sea, from Maine to Georgia, belonged to the King of 
England. There was no President then ; there were no United States. 

George Washington went off to the Ohio country and tried to settle 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



21 



the quarrel, but the French soldiers would not settle it as the English 
wished them to. They built forts in the country, and said they meant 
to keep it all for the King of France. 

So George Washington was sent out again. This time he had a lot 
of soldiers with him, to drive the French away from their forts. The 




-r^y^ 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 



French soldiers would not give in, and Washington and his soldiers had 
a fight with the French and whipped them. 

Then the French King sent more soldiers and built more forts, and the 
English King sent more soldiers, and there was war in the land. 

War is a terrible thing, but sometimes it has to be made. The King 
of England was very angry with the French, and he sent over soldiers 



22 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

from England to fight the French. They were led by a British general, 
whose name was Braddock. He was a brave man, but he thought he 
knew how to do everything, and he would not let anyone else tell him 
how he ought to act. But he had never fought in such a land as Amer- 
ica, where there were great forests and Indians, and other things very 
different from what he was used to. 

George Washington knew that if Genei'al Braddock and the British 
soldiers wished to whip the French and the Indians, who were on the 
French side, they must be very careful when they were marching through 
the forests to battle. He tried to make General Braddoclv see this, too, 
but the British General thought he knew best, and he told Washington 
to mind his own business. 

So the British soldiers marched through the forests just as if they were 
parading down Broadway. They looked very tine, but tliey were not 
careful of themselves, and one day, in the midst of the forest, the French 
and Indians, who were hiding behind trees waiting for them, sprang out 
n})on them and surprised them, and suri'ounded them and tired guns at 
them from the thick, dark woods. 

The British were caught in a trap. They did not know what to do. 
General Braddock was killed ; so were many of his soldiers, and they 
Avould all have been killed or taken prisoners if George Washington had 
not been there. He knew just what to do. He fought bravely, and 
when the British soldiers ran away, he and his Americans kept back the 
French and Indians and saved the British army. 

But it was a terrible defeat for the soldiers of the King of England. 
He had to send more soldiers to America and to fight a long time. But 
at last his soldiers were successful, and, thanks to Colonel Washington, 
as he was now called, the English lands were saved and the French were 
driven away. 

After the war was ovei-, George Washington married a wife. All 
American boys and girls know her name. It was Martha Washington. 

They went to live in a beautiful house on tlie banks of the Potomac 
Kiver, in Virginia. It is called INIount Yeraon. It was Washington's 
home all the rest of his life. The house is still standing, and people 
nowadays go to visit this beautiful ])lace, just to see the spot that every- 
one thinks so much of because it was the home of Washington. Perhaps, 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 23 

some day, you will see it. You will think it is a beautiful jjlace, I am 
sure. 

While Washington was looking after his great farm at Mount Vernon, 
things were becoming very bad in America. 

The King of England said the people in America must do as he told 
them, and not as thev wished. But the Americans said that the Kins: 
was acting very wrongly toward them, and that they would not stand it. 

They did not. When the King's soldiers tried to make them do as 
the King ordered, they said they would die rather than yield, and in a 
place called Lexington, in Massachusetts, some of the Americans took 
their guns and tried to drive off the British soldiers. 

This is what is called rebellion. It made the King of England verv 
angry, and he sent over ships full of soldiers to make the Americans 
mind. 

But the Americans would not. The men in the thirteen different parts 
of the country — called the thirteen colonies — got together and said they 
would tight the King's soldiers, if the King tried to make them do as he 
wished. So they got up an army and sent it to Massachusetts, and there 
they had a famous biittle with the King's soldiers, called the Battle of 
Bunker Hill. 

After the battle, the leading men in the colonies saAv that they must 
put a brave man at the head of their army. There was but one man 
they thought of for this. You know who — George Washington. 

He rode all the way from Mount Vernon, in Virginia, to Cambridge, 
in Massachusetts, on horseback, because, you know, they had no steam- 
cars or steamboats in those days. As he was riding through Connecticut, 
with a few soldiers as his guard, a man came galloping across the coun- 
try, telling people how the Battle of Bunker Hill had been fought. The 
British soldiers had driven the Americans from the fort, and said they 
had won. But it had been hard work for the soldiers of the King. 

Washington stopped the rider, and asked him why the Americans had 
been driven out of the fort. 

" Because they had no powder and shot left," replied the messenger. 

" And did they stand the fire of the British guns as long as they could 
fire back?" asked Washington. 



24 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



"That they did," replied the horseman. "They waited, too, until tlie 
British were close to the fort, before they fired." 

That was what "Washington wished to know. He felt certain that if 
the American farmer boys who stood out against the King's soldiers did 

not get frightened 
or timid in the face 
of the trained sol- 
diers of the King, 
that they would be 
the kind of soldiers 
he needed to win 
with. 

He turned to his 
eom|)anions, "Then 
the Iil>erties of the 
country are safe," 
lie said, and rode 
on to Cambridge to 
take command of 
the army. 

K ever you go to 
Cambridge, in Mas- 
sachusetts, you can 
see the tree under 
which "Washington 
sat on horseback, 
when he took com- 
mand of the Ameri- 
can army. 

It is an old, old 
tree now, but every- 
body loves to look at it and to think of the splendid-looking soldier, in 
his uniform of buff and blue, who, on a July day, long, long ago, sat his 
horse so gallantly beneath that shady elm, and looked at the brave men 
who M-ere to be his soldiers, and by whose help he hoped to make his 
native land a free and independent nation. 




WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELA^WTARE. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 25 

So, at his camp at Cambridge, he drilled his army of farmers and 
fishermen, and when it was ready, he drove the British away from Bos- 
ton without a battle, when all the American leaders met in the City of 
Philadelphia and said they would obey the King of England no longer, 
but would set up a nation of their own. 

They called this new nation the United States of America, and they 
signed a paper that told all the world that the men of America would no 
longer obey the King of England, but would be free, even if they had to 
fight for their freedom. You know what this great paper they signed is 
called — the Declaration of Independence. 

The day that th6y decided to do this is now the greatest day in all 
America. You remember it every year, and celebrate it with iii-c-crackers 
and fire-works and flags, and no school. It is the Fourth of July. 

Well, the King of England Avas very angry at this. He sent more 
ships and soldiers over the sea to America, and there was a long and 
bloody war. It was called the American Revolution. 

There was fighting for seven years, and, thi'ough it all, the chief man 
in America, the man who led the soldiers and fought the British, and 
never gave up, nor ever let himself or his soldiers grow afraid, even when 
he was beaten, was General George Washington. 

If the British drove him away from one place, he marched to another, 
and lie fought and marched, and kcj^t his army brave and determined, 
even when they were ragged and tired, and everything looked as if the 
British would be successful. 

When the British whipped him in the Battle of Long Island, at Biook- 
lyn, and thought they had caught all the American army, Washington, 
one stormy night, got all his soldiers safely across the river to New York, 
and the British had to follow and fight. And, again, when it looked as 
if the Americans must surely give in, Washington took his soldiers, one 
terrible winter's night, across the Delaware Eiver and fell u})on the 
British, when they were not expecting him, and won the Battle of Trenton. 

There were many hard and bitter days for George Washington through 
these years of fighting. One winter, especially, was very bad. The 
British soldiers seemed victorious everywhere. They held the chief cities 
of New York and Philadelphia, and the weak American army was half- 
stavved, cold and shivering in a place in Pennsylvania called Valley 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



Foige. Washington was there, too, and it took all his strength and all 
his heart to keep his soldiers together and make them believe that, if 
they would only "stick to it," they wonld beat the British at last. But 




were all covered with 
hardly clothes enough 
or food to keep them 
was not easy for the 
ahead, and, if it had 
ington, the Ameri- 
melted away, ov?ing 
ter at Valley Foige. 
together, and when 
away from Valley 
army were attacked by 
called Monmouth Court 
beaten and driven 
Washington came gal- \ 
the soldiers who were 
brought up other sol- 
diers to help them, and he fought so boldly 
and bravely, and was so determined, that at last he drove oft' the 
British, and won the important battle of Monmouth. 

You see, Washington simply would not give in when people told him 



when their log huts 
snow, and they had 
to keep them warm, 
from being hungry, it 
soldiers to see victory 
not been for Wash- 
can army would have 
to that dreadful win- 
But he held it 
spring came, marched 
Forge. Part of his 
the British at a place 
House, and was almost 
back, when General 
loping up. He stopped 
runnins; awav ; he 




■WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FOHGE. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 27 

lie would have to, and that the British would get all the cities and towns. 
He said that the country was large, and, that sooner than give in, he 
would go with his soldiers into the mountains and keep up the war until 
the British were so sick of it that they would finally go away. 

So he kept on marching and fighting, and never giving in, even when 
things looked worst, and, at last, on the 19th of October, in the year 1781, 
he captured the whole British army, at a place called Yorktown, in Vir- 
ginia, and the Revolution was ended. 

So the United States won their freedom. They have been a great 
nation ever since, and every American, from that day to this, knows that 
they gained their freedom because they had such a great, brave, noble, 
patriotic, strong and glorious leader as General George Washington. 

After the Revolution was over, and Washington had said good-bye to 
his soldiers and his generals, he went back to Mount Vernon and became 
a farmer again. 

But the people of America would not let him stay a farmer. They got 
together again in Philadelphia, and, after much thought and talk, they 
drew up a paper that said just how the new nation should be governed. 
This is called the Constitution of the United States. 

The Constitution said that, instead of a king, the people should pick 
out — elect is what they called it — one man, who should be head man of 
the nation for four years at a time. He was to preside over things, and 
so he was called the President. 

When the time came to elect the first President there was just one 
man in the United States that everybody said must be the President. 
Of course you know who this man was^George Washington. 

It was a great day for the new nation when he was declared President. 
That is what we call being "inaugurated." All along the way, as he 
rode from Mount Vernon to iSTew York, people came out to welcome him. 
They fired cannon and rang bells, and made bon-fires and put up arches 
and decorations ; little girls scattered fiowers in his path and sang songs 
of greeting, and whenever he came to a town or city, every one turned 
out and marched in procession, escorting Washington through their town. 

When he came to New York, after he had crossed the bay in a big row 
boat, he went in a fine i)rocession to a building called "Federal Hall," 
on Wall Street, and there he stood, on the front balcony of the building. 



28 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



in fiice of all the people, and, with his hand on an open Bible, he said he 
would be a wise and good and faithful President. Then the Judge, who 
had read to him the words he repeated, lifted his hand and cried out: 




WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION- 



^_ 



"Long live George Washington, President of the United States! " A flag 
run up to the cupola of the hall, cannon boomed, bells rang, and all the 
people cheered and cheered their hero and general, whom they had now 
made the head of the whole nation. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 29 

So George Washington became President of the United States. He 
worked just as hard to make the new nation strong and great and peace- 
ful as he did Avhen he led the army in the Revolution. 

People had all sorts of things to suggest. Some of these things were 
foolish, some were wrong and some would have been certain to have 
broken up the United States, and lost all the things for which the coun- 
try fought in the Revolution. 

But Washington was at the head. He knew just what to do, and he 
did it. From the day when, in the City of New York, he w%as made 
President — that is what we call his inauguration — he gave all his thought 
and all his time and all his strengtli to making the United States united 
and prosperous and strong. And, when his four years as President were 
over, the people would not let him give up, but elected him for their 
President for another four years. When Washington was President, the 
Capital of the United States w^as first at New York and afterward at 
Philadelphia. Washington and his wife, w^hom we know of as Martha 
Washington, lived in tine style, and made a very noble-looking couple. 
They gave receptions every once in a while, to which the people would 
come to be introduced and to see the man of whom all the world was 
talking. Washington must have been a splendid-looking man then. 
He was tall and well-built. He dressed in black velvet, with silver knee 
and shoe buckles; his hair was powdered and tied up in what was called 
a "queue." He wore yellow gloves, and held his three-cornered hat in 
his hand. A sword, in a polished white-leather sheath, hung at his side, 
and he would bow to each one who was introduced to him. He had so 
good a memory, that, if he heard a man's name and saw his face at one 
introduction, he could remember and call him by name when he met 
him again. But though he w^as so grand and noble, he was very simple 
in his tastes and his talk, and desired to have no title, like prince or 
king or duke, but only this — the President of the United States. 

His second term as President was just as successful as his first four 
years had been. He kept the people from getting into trouble with other 
countries ; he kept them from war and danger, and quarrels and loss. 

But it tired him all out, and made him an old man before his time. 
He had given almost all his life to America. 

When his second term was ended, the people wished him to be Presi- 



30 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



fumous man in all America. 



dent foi- the third time. But he woidd not. He wrote a long letter to 
the people of America. It is called "Washington's Farewell Address." 
He told them they were growing stronger and better, but that he was 
worn out and must have rest. He told them that if they would be wise 
and peaceful and good, they would become a great nation ; and that all 
they had fought for and all they had gained would last, if they would 
only act right, and they would become great, united and powerful. 

So another man was made President, and Washington went back to 
his farm at Mount Vernon. He was the greatest, the wisest and the most 

People said it was because of what he had 
done for them 
_^ thattheircountry 

was free and \)o\\- 
erful and strong. 
They said that 
George Washing- 

[M i\ WIIMi'lfn? mT Father of His 

1 I ^ m\,m O^^ ) \ ^ — r^fe Country." I think 

he was ; don't 
you ? He was very 
glad to get back 
to Mount Vernon. 
He loved the 

beautiful old place, and he had been away iVom it eight years. He 
liked to be a farmer, with such a great farm to look alter as there are 
in Virginia. He found very much to do, and he mended and built and 
eidarged things and rode over his bi'oad jilantations, or received in his 
tine old house the visitors who came there to see the greatest man in 
all America. 

There came a time when he thought he would have to give up this 
pleasant life and go to be a soldier once more. For there came very near 
being a war between France and the United States, and Congress begged 
Washington to take command of the army once more. He was made 
lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief, and hurried to Philadelphia 
to gather his army together. Fortunately the war did not occur, and the 




WASHINGTON'S BEDROOM, MOUNT VEENON, IN ■WHICH HE DIED. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 31 

new nation was saved all that trouble and bloodshed. But Washington 
was ready, if needed. 

So he went back again to his beloved Mount Yernon. But he did not 
long live to enjoy the peace and quiet that were his right. For, one 
December day, as he was riding over his farm, he caught cold and had 
the croup. He had not the strength that most bo}'s and girls have to 
carry him through such a sickness. He was worn out, and, thougli the 
doctors tried hard to save his life, they could not, and in two days he died. 
It was a sad day for America — -the twelfth day of December, in the year 
1799. 

All the world was sorry, for all the world had come to look upon 
George Washington as the greatest man of the time. King>! and nations 
put on mourning lor him, and, all over the world, bells tolled, drums 
beat and flags were diopped to half-mast, when the news came that 
Washington was dead. 

When you grow up and go to Mount Vernon, as every American boy and 
girl should do some day, you will see his tomb. It is a i)lain and sim])le 
building, just as plain and simple as he was, and it stands close to his 
house, on the green banks of the beautiful Potomac River he loved so much. 

Then, sailing up the Potomac, or riding on the steam-cars, you will 
come to the beautiful city that is named for this great man — Washing- 
ton, the capital of the United States. 

There you will see the great white dome of the splendid capitol, the 
building in which the American people make laws for the nation that 
Washington founded ; there is the White House, where all the Presidents 
since his day have lived ; there is the tall, white monument — the highest 
in the world — that the American people have built to honor his memory 
and his name. 

And in the cities and towns of America are statues and streets and 
parks and schools and buildings named after him, and built because all 
the world knows that this great American general and President was the 
best, the noblest and the bravest man that ever lived in all America — 
George Washington, " iirst in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his 
countrymen." 

Love him, children. Never forget him. Try to be like him. Thus 
may you grow to be good men and women, and, therefore, good Americans. 



THE ENTERTAININQ HISTORY OF 

John Paul Jones, 

First Captain in the United States Navy. 



ONCE upon a time there lived in Scotland a poor gardener, who had 
a little son. The gardener's name was John Paul ; that was his 
son's name, too. The rich man's garden that big John took care 
of was close by the sea, and little John Paul loved blue water so much 
that he spent most of his time near it, and longed to be a sailor. 

This blue water that little John Paul loved was the big bay that lies 
between Scotland and England. It is called Solway Firth. 

When little John Paul was born, on the sixth day of July, in the year 
17J^7, both far-away Scotland, in which he lived, and this land of America, 
in which you live, were ruled by the King of England. 

The gardener's little son lived in his father's cottage near the sea until 
he was twelve years old. Then he was put to work in a Ing town, on 
the other side of the Solway Firth. This town was called Whitehaven. 
It was a very busy place, and shi]is and sailors were there so much and 
in such numbers that this small boy, who had been put into a store, 
much preferred to go down to the docks and talk with the seariien, who 
had been in so many different lands and seas, and who could tell him 
all about the wonderful and curious places they had seen, and about 
their adventures on the great oceans they had sailed over. 

He determined to go to sea. He studied all about ships and how to 
sail them. He studied and read all the books he could get, and, when 

(32) 




JOHN PAUL JONES, FIRST CAPTAIN IN THE U. S. NAVY. 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 



33 



other boys were asleep or in mischief, little John Paul was learning from 
the books he read many things that helped him when he grew older. 

At last he had his wish. When he was but thirteen years old, he went 
as a sailor boy in a ship called the "Friendship." 

The vessel was bound to Virginia, in America, for a cargo of tobacco, 
and the little sailor boy greatly enjoyed the voyage, and was especially 
delighted with the new country across the sea, to which he came. He 
wished he could live in America, and hoped some day to go there again. 




JOHN PAUL JOMES AS A SAILOK BOY. 



But when this first voyage was over, he returned to Whitehaven, and 
to the store, where he worked. But, soon after, the merchant who owned 
the stoi'e failed in business, and the boy was out of a place and had to 
look after himself. So he became a real sailor, this time. For thirteen 
years he was a sailor. He was such a good one that before he was twenty 
years old he was a captain. This is how he became one. While the 

3 



34 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 



ship in wliich he was sailing was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a 
terrible fever broke out. The captain died. The mate, who comes next 
to the captain, died ; all of the sailors were sick, and some of them died. 
There was no one who knew about sailing such a big vessel, except 
young John Paul. So he took command, and sailed the ship into port 
without an accident, and the owners were so glad that they made the 
young sailor a sea captain. 




PAUL JO]S 



M i:N at sea. 



John Paul liad a brother living in Virginia, on the banks of the Rap- 
pahannock River. This was the same river beside which George Wash- 
ington lived when he was a boy. John Paul visited his brother several 
times while he was sailing on his voyages, and he liked the country so 
much that, when his brother died, John Paul gave up being a sailor for 
a while, and went to live on his brothci-"s farm. 

When he became a farmer, he changed his name to Jones. And so 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 35 

little John Paul became known ever after, to all the world, as John Paul 
Jones. 

While he was a farmer in Virginia, the American Revolution broke 
out. I have told you about this in the story of General George Wash- 
ington, who led the armies of the United States to victory. 

John Paul Jones was a sailor even more than he was a farmer. So, 
when war came, he wished to tight the British on the sea. This was a 
bold thing to do, for there was no nation so powerful on the sea as Eng- 
land. The King had a splendid lot of ships of war — almost a thousand. 
The United States had none. But John Paul Jones said we must have 
one. 

Pretty soon the Americans got together five little ships, and sent them 
out as the beginning of the American navy, to fight the thousand ships 
of England. 

John Paul Jones was made first lieutenant of a ship called the Alfied. 
The first thing he did was to hoist, for the first time on any ship, the 
first American fiag. This flag had thirteen red and white stripes, but, 
instead of the stars that are now on the flag, it had a pine tree, Avith a 
rattlesnake coiled around it, and underneath were the words: "Don't 
tread on me! " 

The British sea captains who did try to tread on that rattlesnake flag 
were terribly bitten, for John Paul Jones was a brave man and a bold 
sailor. When he was given command of a little war sloop, called the 
Providence, he just kept those British captains so busy trying to catch 
him that they could not get any rest. He darted up and down Long Is- 
. land Sound, carrying soldiers and guns and food to General Washington, 
and, although one great British war ship, the Cerberus, tried for weeks 
to catch him, it had to give up the chase, foi- John Paul Jones couldn't be 
caught. For all this good work, this bold sailor was made Captain Jones, 
of the United States Navy, and it is said that he was the first captain 
made by Congress. 

He sailed up and down the coast, hunting for British vessels. He 
hunted so well that in one cruise of six weeks he captured sixteen ves- 
sels, or "prizes," as they were called, and destroyed many others. Among 
these was one large vessel, loaded with new warm clothing for the British 
army. Captain Jones sent the vessel and its whole cargo safely into 



3G 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 



port, and the captured clothes were all sent to the American camp, an('. 
were worn by Washington's ragged soldiers. 

The next year Captain Jones sailed away to France in a fine new ship 
called the Eanger, Before he sailed out of Portsmouth Harbor, in New 
Hampshire, he "ran up" to the mast head of the Ranger the first "Stars 





JONES APPKOACHING WHITEHAVEN, EARLY MOiiNING. 



and Stripes" ever raised over a ship — Washington's real American flag, 
with its thirteen stripes and its thirteen stars. 

He went to France and had a talk with Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the 
great American who got France to help the United States in the Revo- 
lution. Then, after he had sailed through the whole French fleet, and 
made them all fire a salute to the American flag — it was the first salute 
ever given it by a foreign nation — he steered away for the shores of Eng- 
land, and so worried the captains and sailors and storekeepers and peo- 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 37 

pie of England that they would have given anything to catch him. But 
they couldn't. 

The English King and people had not supposed the Americans would 
fight. Especially, they did not believe they would dare to fight the 
English on the sea, for England was the strongest country in the world 
in ships and sailors. So they despised and made fun of " Yankee sailors," 
as they called the Americans. But when Captain John Paul Jones came 
sailing in his fine ship, the Eanger, up and down the coasts of England, 
going right into English harbors, capturing English villages and burning 
English ships, the people begun to think differently. 

They called Captain Jones a "j^irate," and all sorts of liard names. 
But they were very much afraid of him and his stout ship.- He was not 
a pirate, either. For a pirate is a bold, bad sea robber, who burns ships 
and kills sailors just to get the money himself. But John Paul Jones 
attacked ships and captured sailors, not for selfish money-getting, but 
to show how much Americans could do, and to break the power of the 
English navy on the seas. So, this voyage of his, along the shores of 
England, taught the Englishmen to respect and fear the American sailors. 

After he had captured many British vessels, called "prizes," almost 
in sight of their homes, he boldly sailed to the north and into the very 
port of Whitehaven, where he had "tended store," as a boy, and from 
which he had first gone to sea. He knew the place, of course. He 
knew how many vessels were there, and what a splendid victory he 
could win for the American navy, if he could sail into Whitehaven har- 
bor and capture or destroy the two hundred vessels that were anchored 
within sight of the town he remembered so well. 

With two row-boats and thirty men he landed at Whitehaven, locked 
up the soldiers in the forts, fixed the cannon so that they could not be 
fired, set fire to the vessels that were in the harbor, and so frightened all 
the people that, though the gardener's son stood alone on the wharf, 
waiting for a boat to take him off, not a man dared to lay a hand on 
him. 

Then he sailed across the bay to the house of the great lord for whom 
his father had worked as a gardener. He meant to run away with this 
great man, and keep him prisoner until the British promised to treat 
better the Americans whom they had taken prisoners. But the great 



38 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 



lord whom he went for found it best to be "not at home," so all that 
Captain Jones' men could do was to caiTy off from the big house some 
of the tine things that were in it. But Captain Jones did not like this; 
so he got the things back and returned them to the rich lord's wife, with 
a nice letter, asking her to excuse his men. 

But while he was carrying on so in Solway Firth, along came a great 

■; 1 




JONES' MEN ASHORE-WHITEHAVEN. 



British warship, called the Drake, determined to gobble up poor Captain 
Jones at a mouthful. But Captain Jones was not afraid. This was just 
what he was looking for. " Come on ! " he cried ; '• I'm waiting for you." 
The British ship dashed up to capture him, but the Ranger was all ready, 
and in just one hour Captain Jones had beaten and captured the English 
frigate, and then, with both vessels, sailed merrily away to the friendly 
French shores. 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 39 

Soon after this, the French decided to lielp the Americans in their war 
for independence. So, after some time, Captain Jones was put in com- 
mand of tive shii)s, and back he sailed to England, to tight the British 
ships again. 

The vessel in which Captain Jones sailed was the biggest of the five 
ships. It had forty guns and a crew of three hundred sailors. Captain 
Jones thought so much of the great Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who wrote 
a book of good advice, under the name of "Poor Richard," that he 
named his big ship for Dr. Franklin. He called it the "Bon Homme 
Richard," which is Fi'ench for "good man Richard." The Bon Homme 
Richard was not a good boat, if it was a big one. It was old and rotten 
and cranky, but Captain Jones made the best of it. 

The little fleet sailed up and down the English coasts, capturing a 
few prizes, and greatly frightening the i)eople by saying that they had 
come to burn some of the big English sea towns. 

Then, just as they were about sailing back to France, they came — 
near an English cape, called Flamborough Head — upon a great English 
fleet of forty merchant vessels and two war ships. 

One of the war ships was a great English frigate, called the Serapis, 
finer and stronger every way than the Bon Homme Richard. But Cap- 
tain Jones would not run away. 

"What ship is that?" called out the Englishman. "Come a little 
nearer, and we'll tell you," answered plucky Captain Jones. 

The British ships did come a little nearer. The forty merchant ves- 
sels sailed as fast as they could to the nearest harbor, and then the war 
ships had a terrible sea fight. 

At seven o'clock in the evening the British frigate and the Bon 
Homme Richard began to fight. They banged and hammered away for 
hours, and then, when the British captain thought he must have beaten 
and broken the Americans, and it was so dark and smoky that they 
could only see each other by the fire flashes, the British captain, Pearson, 
called out to the American captain: "Are you beaten? Have you 
hauled down your flag?" 

And back came the answer of Captain John Paul Jones: " I haven't 
begun to fight yet! " 

So they went at it again. The two ships were now lashed together, 



40 JOHN PAUL JONES. 

and they tore each other like savage dogs in a terrible fight. 0, it was 
dreadful ! 

At last, when the poor old Richard was shot through and through, and 
leaking and on fire, and seemed ready to sink, Captain Jones made one 
last effort. It was successful. Down came the great mast of the Sera- 
pis, crashing to the deck. Then her guns were quiet ; her flag came 
tumbling down, as a sign that she gave in. 

At once, Captain Jones sent some of his sailors aboard the defeated 
Serapis. The captured vessel was a splendid new frigate, quite a differ- 
ent ship from the poor, old, worm-eaten and worn-out Richard. 

One of the American sailors went up to Captain Pearson, the Biitish 
commander, and asked him if he surrendered. The Englishman rei)lied 
that he had, and then he and his chief officer went aboard the battered 
Richard, which was sinking even in its hour of victory. 

But Captain Jones stood on the deck of his sinking vessel, jMoud and 
triumphant. He had shown what an American ca])tain and American 
sailors could do, even when everything was against them. The English 
captain gave up his sword to the American, which is the way all sailors 
and soldiers do when they surrender their ships or their armies. 

The fight had been a brave one, and the English King knew that his 
captain had made a bold and desperate resistance, even if he had been 
wdiipped. So he rewarded Captain Pearson, when he at last returned to 
England, by giving to him the title of "Sir," and when Captain Jones 
heard of it he laughed, and said : " "Well, if I can meet Cajjtain Pearson 
again in a sea fight, I'll make a 'lord' of him." For a "lord" is a 
higher title than " sir." 

The poor Bon Homme Richard was shot through and through, and 
soon sunk beneath the waves. But even as she went down, the stars 
and stripes floated proudly from the masthead, in token of victory. 

Captain Jones, after the surrender, put all his men aboard the cap- 
tured Serapis, and then off he sailed to the nearest friendly port, with 
his great prize and all his prisoners. This victory made him the great- 
est sailor in the whole American war. 

The Dutch port into which he sailed was not friendly to America, but 
Captain Jones had made his name so famous as a sea fighter, that neither 
the thirteen Dutch frigates inside the harbor, nor the twelve British 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 



41 



ships outside, dared to touch him, and, after a while — when he got good 
and ready — Captain Jones ran the stars and stripes to the masthead 
and, while the wind was blowing a gale, sailed out of the harbor, right 
through two big British fleets, and so sailed safely to France, with no 
one bold enough to attack him. 

He had made a great record as a sailor and sea fighter. France was 
on America's side in 
tlie Revolution, you 
know, and when Cap- 
tain Jones went to 
France after his great 
victory, he was re- 
ceived with great 
honor. 

Everybody wished 
to see such a hero. 
He went to the King's 
court, and the King 
and Queen and French 
lords and ladies made 
much of him and gave 
him fine receptions, 
and said so many fine 
things about him that, 
if he had been at all 
vain, it might have 
" turned his head," 
as people say. But 
John Paul Jones w^as 
not vain. 

lie was a brave 
sailor, and he was in France to get help and not compliments. He 
wished a new ship to take the place of the old Richard, which had gone 
to the bottom after its great victory. 

So, though the King of France honored him and received him splen- 
didly and made him presents, he kept on working to get another ship. 




JONES' FIGHT BETWEEN BON HOMME KICHARD AND SEHAPIS. 



42 JOHN PAUL JONES. 

At last he was made captain of a new ship, called the Ariel, and sailed 
from France. He had a tieice battle with an English shi]) called the 
Triumph, and defeated her. But she escaped before surrendering, and 
Captain Jones sailed across the sea to America. 

He was received with great honor and applause. Congress gave him 
a vote of thanks " for the zeal, prudence and intrepidity with which he 
had supported the honor of the American liag" — that is what the vote 
said. 

People everywhere crowded to see him, and called him hero and con- 
queror. Lafayette, the brave young Frenchman, you know, who came 
over to fight for America, called him " my dear Paul Jones," and Wash- 
ington and the other leaders in America said, "Well done. Captain 
Jones! " 

The King of France sent him a splendid reward of merit called the 
" Cross of Honor," and Congress set about building a fine ship for him 
to command. But before it was finished, the war was over, and he was 
sent back to France on some important business for the United States. 

After he had done this, the Pussians asked him to come and help 
them fight the Turks. 

This was often done in those days, when soldiers and sailors of one 
country went to fight in the armies or navies of another. 

Captain Jones said he would be willing to go, if the United States said 
he could, for, he said: " I can never renounce the glorious title of a citi- 
zen of the United States." 

The United States said he could go to Russia, but the British officers 
who were fighting for Russia, refused to serve under Jones, because, as 
they said, he was a rebel, a pirate and a tiaitor. You see, they had not 
forgiven him for so beating and frightening the English ships and peo[)le 
in the Revolution. And they called him these names because he, born 
in Scotland, had fought for America. 

They made it very unpleasant for Captain Jones, and he had so hard 
a time in Russia that, after nmny wonderful adventures and much hard 
fighting, at last he gave up, and went back to France. 

He was taken sick soon after he returned to France, and, though he 
tried to fight against it, he could not recover. He had gone through 
so nmny hardships and adventures and changes that he was old before 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 



43 



his time, and although his friends tried to help him and the Queen of 
France sent her own doctor to attend him, it was no use. 

He died on the eighteenth day of July, in the year 1792, when he was 
but forty-five years old. He was buried in Paris, with great honor. 

The French people gave liiin n great funeral, as their token of respect 

and honor, and — — - , 

the French cler- 
gyman w^ho gave 
the funeral ora- 
tion said : "May 
his example teach 
posterity the ef- 
forts which noble 
souls are capable 
of making when 
stimulated by 
hatred to oppres- 
sion." 

John Paul 
Joneswasabrave 
and gallant man. 
He fought des- 
perately, and war 
is a dreadful 
thing, you know. 
But, as I have 
told you, souic- 
times it has to 
be, and then it 
must be bold 

and determined. Captain Jones did much by his dash and courage to 
make America free. He gave her strength and power on the seas. 

He fought twenty-three naval battles, made seven attacks upon Eng- 
lish ports and coasts, fought and captured four great war ships, larger 
than his own, and took many valuable prizes — to the loss of England 
and the glory of America. 




BBITISH CAPTAIN SUKKENDEHING SWOKD. 



44 JOHN PAUL JONES. 

American boys and girls know too little about him. If you are to 
learn about those who have fought for America on land and sea, you must 
surely hear of him who was the first captain in the United States Navy 
— and whose brave deeds and noble heroism is the heritage and example 
of American sailors for all time. 

" I have ever looked out for the honor of the American flag," he said 
and Americans are just beginning to see how much this first of American 
sailors did for their liberty, their honor and their fame. 

Some day they will know him still more, and in one of the great cities 
of this land which he saved from destruction in those early days, a noble 
statue will be built to do honor to Captain John Paul Jones — the man 
who was one of the bravest and most successful sea fighters in the history 
of the world. 




LINCOLN, RAIL-SPLITTER. 



THE NOTABLE HISTORY OF 



Abraham Lincoln, 



Sixteenth President of the United States. 




DID you ever read 
the fairy stories 
about the poor boy wlio 
became a prince? Do 
you wish to hear a true 
story about just such a 
boy? Let me tell it to 
you. It is the story of 
Abraham Lincoln, the 
hero who saved his coun- 
try. He was as poor a 
boy as ever lived in 
America; he rose to be 
o-rcater and grander and 
more royal than any 
prince, or king, or em- 
peror who ever wore a 
crown. Listen to his 
story: 

There was once a poor 
carpenter, who lived in a 
miserable little log cabin, 
(45) 



46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

out West. It was on a stony, weedy little hill-side, at a place called 
Nolin's Creek, in the State of Kentucky. 

In that log cabin, on the twelfth day of February, in the year 1809, a 
little baby was born. He was named Abraham Lincoln. 

I don't believe you ever saw a much poorer or meaner place in which 
to be born and brought up than that little log cabin. Abraham Lin- 
coln's father was poor and lazy. He could not read and he hated to 
work. Abraham Lincoln's mother was a hard-working young woman, 
who dreamed about having nice things, but never did have them. Their 
house had no windows, it had no floor, it had none of the things you 
have in your pleasant homes. In all America no baby was ever born 
with fewer comforts and poorer surroundings than little Abraham Lin- 
coln. He grew from a baby to a homely little boy, and to a homelier- 
looking young man. He was tall and thin and gawky. His clothes 
never fitted him; he never, in all his life, went to school but a year; he 
had to work hard, he could play but littk', and, many a day, he knew 
what it was to be cold and hungry and almost homeless. 

His father kept moving about from place to })lace, living almost always 
in the woods, in Kentucky and Indiana and Illinois. Sometimes their 
home would be a log cabin, sometiuios it was just a hut with only three 
sides boarded up, and little Abraham Lincoln was a neglected and for- 
lorn little fellow. 

His mother died when he was only eight years old. Then Abraham 
and his sister, Sarah, were worse oft" than ever. But pretty soon his 
father married a second wife, and Abraham's new mother was a good and 
wise woman. 

She washed him and gave him new clothes; she taught him how to 
make the most and do the best with the few things he had and the 
chances that came to him; she made him wish for better things ; she 
helped him fix himself up, and encouraged him to read and study. 

This last was what Abraham liked most of all, and he was reading and 
studying all the time. There were not many books where he lived, but 
he borrowed all he could lay his hands on, and read them over and over. 

He studied all the hard things he could find books on, from arithmetic 
and grammar to surveying and law. He wrote on a shingle, when he 
could not get i)aper, and by the light of a log fire, when he could not get 



ABRAHA3I LINCOLN. 47 

candles. He read and studied in tlie fields, when he was not working; 
on wood-piles, where he was chopping wood, or in the kitchen, rocking 
the cradle of any baby whose father or mother had a book to lend him. 
His favorite position for studying was to lay, stretched out like the long 
boy he was, flat on the floor, in front of an open fire. Here he would 
read and write and cipher, after the day's work was over, until, at last, 
he grew to be as good a scholar as any boy round. 

Once he borrowed a book of an old farmer. It was a "Life of Wash- 
ington." He read it and read it again, and when he was not reading it 
he put it safely away between the logs that made the wall of his log- 
cabin home. But one day there came a hard storm; it beat against the 
cabin and soaked in between the logs and spoiled the book. Young 
Abraham did not try to hide the book nor get out of the trouble. He 
never did a mean thing of that sort. He took the soaked and ruined 
book to the old farmer, told him how it happened, and asked how he 
could pay for it. 

"Wall," said the old farmer, "'faint much account to me now. You 
pull fodder for three days and the book is yours." 

So the boy set to work, and for three days "pulled fodder" to feed the 
farmer's cattle. 

He dried and smoothed and pressed out the "Life of Washington," for 
it was his now. And that is the way he bought his first book. 

He was the strongest boy in all the country 'round. He could mow 
the most, plough the deepest, split wood the best, toss the farthest,' run 
the swiftest, jump the highest and wrestle the best of any boy or man in 
the neighborhood. But, though he was so strong, he was always so kind, 
so gentle, so obliging, so just 'and so helpful that everybody liked him, 
few dared to stand up against him, and all came to him to get work done, 
settle disputes, or find help in quarrels or trouble. 

When he was fifteen years old he was over six feet tall and very strong. 
No man or boy could throw him down in a wrestle. He was like Wash- 
ington in this, for both men were remarkable wrestlers when they were 
boys. But he always wrestled fair. Once, when he had gone to a new 
place to live, the big boys got him to wrestle with their champion, and 
when the champion found he was getting the worst of it he began to try 
unfair ways to win. This was one thing that Lincoln never would 



48 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



stand — unfairness or meanness. He caught the big fellow, lifted him in 
the air, shook him as a dog shakes a rat, and then threw him down to 
the ground. The big bully was conquered. He was a friend and fol- 
lower of Lincoln as long as he lived, and you may be sure the "boys" all 
about never tried any more mean tricks on Abraham Lincoln. 

So he grew, amid the woods and farms, to be a bright, willing, oblig- 
ing, active, good-natured, fun-loving boy. He had to work early and 




THE BOY LINCOLN, STUDYING. 



late, and when he was a big boy he went to work among the farmers, 
where he hired as a "hired man." He could do anything, from splitting 
rails for fences to rocking the baby's cradle; or from hoeing corn in the 
field to telling stories in the kitchen. 

And how he did like to tell funny stories. Not always funny, either- 
For, you see, he had read so much and remembered things so well that 
he could tell stories to make people laugh and stories to make people 
think. He liked to recite poetry and "speak pieces," and do all the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



49 



tilings that make a person good company for every one. He would sit in 
front of the country store or on the counter inside and tell of all the funny 
things he had seen, or heard, or knew. He would make u[) poetry about 
the men and women of the neighborhood, or "reel otf" a speech upon 
things that the people were interested in, until all the boys and girls, 
and the men and women, too, said "Abe Lincoln," as they called 
him, knew about everything, and was an "awful smart chap." 

Sometimes 
they thought 
he knew too 
much, for once, 
when he tried 
to explain to 
one of the girls 
that the earth 
turned around 
and the sun did 
not move, she 
would not be- 
lieve him, and 
said he was 
fooling her. 
But she lived 
to learn that 
"Abe," as she 
called him, was 
not a fool, 
but a bright, 

thoughtful, studious boy, who understood what he read and did not 
forget it. 

He worked on farms, ran a ferry-boat across the river, split rails for 
farm fences, worked an oar on a "flat-boat," got up a machine for lifting 
boats out of the mud, kept store, did all sorts of "odd jobs" for the farm- 
ers and their wives, and was, in fact, what we call a regular "Jack of all 
trades." And all the time, though he was jolly and liked a good time, 
he kept studying, studying, studying, until, as I have told you, the peo- 




LINCOLN, THE WRESTLER. 



50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

pie where lie lived said he knew more than anybody else. Some of them 
even said that they knew he would be President of the United States 
some day, he was so smart. 

The work he did most of all out-of-doors, was splitting great logs into 
rails for fences. He could do as much as three men at this work, he was 
so strong. With one blow he could just bury the axe in the wood. Once 
he split enough rails for a woman to pay for a suit of clothes she made 
him, and all the farmers round liked to have "Abe Lincoln," as they called 
him, si)lit their I'ails. 

He could take the heavy axe by the end of the handle and hold it out 
straight from his shoulder. That is something that only a very strong- 
armed ])erson can do. In fact, as I have told you, he was the cham})ion 
strong-boy of his neighborhood, and, though he was never quarrelsome 
or a tighter, he did enjoy a friendly wrestle, and, we are told, that he 
could strike the hardest blow with axe or maul, jump higher and farther 
than any of his comrades, and there was no one, far or near, who 
could i)ut him on his back. He made two trips down the long Ohio 
and the broad Mississij)pi rivers to the big city of New Orleans, in Louis- 
iana. He sailed on a clumsy, square, flat-bottomed scow, called a flat- 
boat. Lincoln worked the forward oar on the flat-boat, to guide the big 
crai't through the river currents and over snags. 

On these ti'i])s he tii'st saw negro men and Avomcn bought and sold the 
same as hoi'ses, j)igs and cattle, and from that day, all through his life, he 
hated slavery. When he became a young man, a war broke out in the 
Western country with the Indians. They were led by the famous Lidian 
chief called Black Hawk. Lincoln went with the soldiers to liglit J31aek 
Hawk. He was thought so much of l)y his companions that they made 
him cajitain of their company. 

Captain Lincoln's soldiers all liked him, and they were just like l»oys 
together. Sometimes they were pretty wild bo}s and gave him a good 
deal of trouble, but he never got real angry at them but once. That 
was when a poor, broken-down, old Indian came into camp for food and 
shelter, and Loncoln's "boys" were going to kill him just because he was 
an Indian. But Lincoln said, "For shame!" He ])rotected the old 
Indian and, standing up in tVont of him, said he would knock down the 
first man that dared to touch him. The soldiers knew that Lincoln 



ABRAHAM JJXrOLN. 



51 

And 



meant what he said, and tlioiight even more of him after that 
the old Indian's life was saved. 

When tlie soldiers' time was np, and most of them went back home, 
Lincoln would not go with them. He joined another regiment as a pii- 
vate soldier and staid in the army until the Indians were beaten and 
driven away, and Black Hawk was taken piisoner. 

Then Lincoln started for home with another soldier boy. They had 




LINCOLN, AS HIRED MAN, TELLING A STORY. 

great adventures. Their horse was stolen, and they had to walk; then 
they found an old canoe and paddled down the rivers until the canoe was 
upset and they were nearly drowned ; then they walked again until they 
"got a lift" on a row-l)oat, and so, at last, walking and paddling, they 
got back to their homes, ]ioor and tired out, but strong and healthy 
young men. 

Then Lincoln tried store-keeping again. He had already been a clerk 



52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

in a country store; now he set up a store of his own. He was not very 
successful. He loved to read and study better than to wait on custom- 
ers, and he was so obliging and good-natured that he could not make 
nuich money. Then he had a partner who was lazy and good for noth- 
ing, and who got him into trouble. But, through it all, Lincoln never 
did a mean or dishonest thing. He paid all the debts, though it took 
him years to do this, and he could be so completely trusted to do the 
right thing for everyone that all the people round abont learned to call 
him "Honest Abe Lincoln." That's a good nick-name, is'nt it? 

After Lincoln got through keeping store he was so much liked by the 
people that they chose him to go to the capital of the State, as one of 
the men who made laws for the State of Illinois, in what is called the 
State Legislature. 

He was sent to the Legislature again and again, and one of the first 
things he did was to draw up a paper, saying wiiat a kicked thing 
slavery was. 

At that time, you know, almost everybody in the southern half of the 
United States owned negro men and women and children, just as they 
owned horses and dogs and cows. Lincoln did not believe in this. Once, 
when he was in New Orleans, on one of his tlat-boat trips, he went into 
a dreadful place where they sold men and women at auction. It made 
young Lincoln sick and angry, and he said if ever he got the chance he 
would hit slavery a blow that would hurt it — though, of course, lie did 
not think he was ever to have the real chance to " hit it hard " that did 
come to him. 

But when he was a young man no one said much against slavery, and 
the people thought Lincoln was foolish to act and talk as he did. But, 
you see, one of the strongest things about Abraham Lincoln was that he 
was sympathetic — that is, he felt sorry for anyone in ti'oublc. He was 
tender, even with animals— pigs and horses, cats and dogs, and biids. 
If he found a little bird on the ground, he would take it up tenderly and 
hunt around until he found its nest, and leave it there. He would get 
down from his horse to pull a pig out of the nnid, and, when he was a 
boy, he went back across an icy and rushing river to helj) over a poor 
little dog that was afraid to cross. So you will not wonder that, when 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



53 



he grew to be a man, he hated slavery, for slavery was unkindness to 
men and women. 

After he came back from the Legishiture, he became a lawyer — he had 
always been studying law, you know. He was a l)right, smart and suc- 
cessful lawyer. What is better still, lie was a good and honest one. He 
never would take a case he did not believe in, and once when a man 
came to engage him to help get some money from a poor widow, Lincoln 
refused, and gave the man such a scolding that the man did not try it 




LIlNlCOLW KEEPING STOHE. 



again. So Mr. Lincoln grew to be one of the best lawyers in all that 
Western country. 

Because he was so wise and brave in s])eech and action, Lincohi rose 
to be what is called a great politician. He and another famous 
man, named Douglas, looked at things differently, and they had long 
public talks or discussions about politics and slavery. These discussions 
were held Avhere all the people could hear them, in big halls or out of 
doors, and crowds of people went to listen to these talks, so that very 



54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

soon everybody "out West" and people all over the country had heaid 
of Lincoln and Douglas. 

At last, came a time when the people of the United States were to 
choose a new President. And what do you think? These two men 
were picked out by the opposite parties to be voted for by the people — 
Lincoln by the Republicans, and Douglas by the Democrats. 

And on election day the Republicans won. The poor little backwoods 
boy, the rail-splitter, the flat-boatman, the farm-hand, was raised to the 
highest place over all the people. Abraham Lincoln was elected Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

Is not that as good as your fairy story of the poor boy who became a 
prince ? It is even better, for it is true. 

It was a great honor, but it meant hard work and lots of worry for 
Abraham Lincoln. Bad times were coming for America. 

The men of the South, wlio believed in slavery and said that their 
States Iiad everything to say, stood up against the men of the North, 
who did not believe in slavery, and said that the Government of the 
United States had more to say than any one of the separate States. 

Thus the men of the South said, " You do as we say, or we will break 
up the Union." 

And the men of the North said, " You cannot break it up. The union 
of all the States shall be kept, and you must stay in it." 

The South said, " We won't ; we will secede " — that is, draw out of 
the Union. 

The Nortli said, " You shall not secede. We will fight to keep you in 
and preserve the Union." 

The South said, " We dare you ! " 

The North said, " We'll take that dare ! " 

And then there was war. 

Abraham Lincoln, when he was made President, spoke beautifully to 
the people, and begged them not to quarrel. But, at the same time, he 
told them that whatever happened, he was there to save the Union, and 
he should do so. 

But his words then had little effect. War had to come, and it came. 

For four dreadful years the men of the North and the men of the South 
fought each other for the mastery on Southern battle-fields. Many des- 



ASnAITAM LINCOLN. oo 

peiatc and terrible battles were fought, for each side was bound to win. 
Neither side would give in, and brave soldiei's, under brave leaders, did 
many gallant deeds under that terrible necessity that men call war. 
This war was esjiecially di-eadful, because it was just like two brothers 
fighting with each other, and you know how dreadful that must be. 

During all those four years of war Abraham Lincoln lived in the Presi- 
dent's house at Washington — the White House, as it is called. 

He had but one wish — to save the Union. He did not mean to let 
war, nor trouble, nor wicked men destroy the nation that Washington 
had founded. He was always i-eady to say, " We forgive you," if the men 
of the South would only stop fighting and say, "We are sorry." But 
they would not do this, much as the great, kind, patient,- loving Presi- 
dent wished them to. 

That he was kind and loving all thi'ough that tei'rible Avar we know 
very well. War is a dreadful thing, and when it is going on some hard 
and cruel things have to be done. The soldiei-s who are sick or wounded 
have to be hurt to make them well. As they lay in their hospitals, after 
some dreadful battle had torn and maimed them, the good President 
would walk through the long lines of cot-beds, talking kindly with the 
wounded soldiers, sending them nice things, doing everything he could 
to relieve their sutTerings and make them patient and comfortable. 

In war, too, you know, even bi-ave soldiers often get tired of the fight- 
ing and the privations and the delay, and wish to go home to see their 
wives and children. But they cannot, until it is time foi' them. So, 
sometimes they get impatient and run away. This is called desertion, 
and when a deserter is caught and brought back to the army, he 
is shot. 

Now President Lincoln was so loving and tender-hearted that he could 
not bear to have any of his soldiers shot because they had tried to go 
home. So, whenever he had a chance, he would write a paper saying 
the soldier must not be shot. This is called a pardon, and whenever a 
weak or tinud soldier was arrested and sentenced to be shot as a deserter, 
his friends would hurry to the good President and beg him to give the 
man a pardon. 

He almost always did it. " I don't see how it will do the man any 
good to shoot him," he would say. " Give me the papei', Pll sign it," 



56 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



and SO the deserter would go free, and perhaps make a better soldier 
than ever, because the good President had saved him. 

The question of slavery was always coming up in this wartime. But 
when some of the men at the North asked Lincoln to set all the slaves 
in the land free, he said : " The first thing to do is to save the Union ; 
after that we'll see about slavery." 

Some people did not like that. They said the President was too slow. 







k 













LINCOLN ON THE FLAT BOAT 



But he was not. He was the wisest man in all the world ; the only one 
who could do just the right thing, and he did it. 

He waited patiently until just the right time came. He saw that the 
South was not willing to give in, and that something must be done to 
show them that the North was just as determined as they were. So, 
after a great victory had been won by the soldiers of the Union, Abra- 
ham Lincoln wrote a paper and sent it out to the world, saying tluit on 
the first day of January, in the year 1803, all slaves in America should 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



57 



be free men and women — what we call emancipated — and that, forever 
after, there should be no such thing as slavery in free America. 

It was a great thing to do. It was a greater thing t(j do it just as 
Lincoln did it, and, while the w^orld lasts, no one will ever forget the 

E m a n c i p a - 
tion Procla- 
ni a t i n o f 
A b r a h a m 
Lincoln. 

Still the 
war went on. 
,But, little by 
little, the 
South was 
glowing wea- 
ker, and, at 
hist, in the 
month of 
Ajiril, 1805, 
the end came. 
The Southei-n 
soldiers gave 
up the fight. 
The North 
was victori- 
ous. The 
Union was 
saved. 

You may 
be sure that 

the great and good President was glad. He did not think that he had 
done so very much. It was the people who had done it all, he said. 
But the people knew that Lincoln had been the leader and captain 
who had led them safely through all their troubles, and they cheered 
and blessed him accordingly. 




LINCOLN ENTERING RICHMOND. 



58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

But do you think the poor bhick people whom he had set free blessed 
him ? They did, indeed. 

When President Lincoln at last stood in the streets of Richmond, 
which had been the capital of the Southern States, he was almost wor- 
shipped by the coloi'ed people. They danced, they sang, they ciied, they 
prayed, they called down blessings on the head of their emancipator — 
the man who had set them free. They knelt at his feet, while the good 
President, greatly moved by what he saw, bowed pleasantly to the shout- 
ing throng, while tears of joy and pity rolled down his care-wrinkled 
face. Don't you think it must have been a great and blessed moment 
for this good and great and noble man. But it was the same all o\er 
the land. There was cheering and shouting and thanksgiving every- 
where for a re-united nation, and even the South, weary with four years 
of unsuccessful war, welcomed peace and quiet once more. 

Then, who in all the world was greater than Abraham Lincoln ? He 
had done it all, people said, by his wisdom, his patience and his determin- 
ation, and the splendid way in which he had directed everything from his 
home in the White House. 

The year before, in the midst of the wai', he had been elected Presi- 
dent for the second time. " It is not safe to swap horses when you are 
crossing a stream," he said. So the people voted not to "swap horses." 

Lincoln made a beautiful speech to the [ieople when he was again 
made President. He spoke only of love and kindness for the men of the 
South, and, while he said the North must fight on to the end and save 
the Union, they must do it not hating the South, but loving it. 

And this is the way he ended that famous speech. Remember his 
words, boys and girls, they are glorious : " With malice toward none, with 
charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the 
right, let us finish the work we are in * * * and achieve and 
cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all 
nations." 

But, just when the war was ended, when peace came to the land 
again ; when all men saw what a grand and noble and loving and strong 
man the great President was ; when it looked as if, after four years of 
worry, weariness and work, he could at last rest from his labors and be 
happy, a wicked, foolish and miserable man shot the President, behind 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 59 

his back. And, on the morning of the tifteenth of April, in the year 
1865, Abraham Lincohi died. 

Then how all the land mourned ! South, as well as North, wept for 
the dead President. All the world sorrowed, and men and a\ omen began 
to see what a great and noble man had been taken from them. 

The world lias not got over it yet. Every year and every day only 
makes Abraham Lincoln greater, nobler, mightier. No boy ever, in all 
the world, rose higher from poorer beginnings. No man who ever lived 
did more for the world than Abraham Lincoln, the American. 

He saw what was right, and he did it ; he knew what was true, and he 
said it; he felt what was just, and he stuck to it. So he stands to-day, 
for justice, truth and right. 

You do not understand all this now, as you listen to these words and 
look at these pictures. But some day you will, and you will then know 
that it was because Abraham Lincoln lived and did these things that 
you have to-day a hai)py home in a great, free, rich and beautil'ul coun- 
try — '■ The land of the free and the home of the brave." 

So remember this, now, boys and girls : You are free and happy in 
America to-day, because Abraham Lincoln saved for you to live in the 
land that George Washington made free. 



THE REMARKABLE HISTORY OF 

Ulysses S. Grant, 

General of the Armies of the United States. 



THIS is tlie story of a great soldier and a good man. Eveiybody 
likes to see soldiers marching, with their drums and guns and 
Hags and uniforms. They make a fine sight, and the boys and 
girls all hurrah and clap their hands as the regiments march by. But 
when these soldiers go marching to battle, it is <j[uite another thing. 
For war is terrible, and some of the best and bravest soldiei's hate it 
the most. 

Sometimes, however, great (juestions and bitter quarrels can only be 
settled by war and fighting, and then it is well for the people to have 
their armies led to battle by such a great and gallant soldier as this 
story tells about. 

His name was Ulysses Sim]ison Grant. He was born in a little town, 
out in Ohio, called Point Pleasant, on the twenty-seventh of April, in 
the year 1822. The house in which he was born is still standing. It is 
on the banks of the Ohio Eiver, and you can look across to Kentucky, 
on the other side of the river. 

When Ulysses was only a year old his father moved to a place called 
(icorgetown, not far away, and there he spent his boyhood. 

He was a sti'ong, healthy, go-ahead little fellow, who did not like to go 
to school very well. But, if he had auytliing to do, either in work or 
play, he stuck to it. until it was done. 

When he was seventeen years old, Ulysses was sent to the splendid 
((iO) 




GRANT ON THE FIELD, LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 



I 
I 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



61 



school among the beautiful highlands of the Hudson River, in New York, 
where boys are taught to become soldiers of the United States Army. 
This is called the United States Military Academy, at West Point. 




GRANT'S CHILDHOOD 



He stayed four years at this famous 
school. He did not like the school part 
of it any more at West Point than he did • 

at his Ohio school-house, but he loved horses, and became a tine horse 
back rider. 

When he left West Point, he was made second lieutenant in the 



62 ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Lnited States Army. He went home, but in a year or two there was a 
war between the United States and the country that joins us on the 
south. It is called Mexico, and this war is called the Mexican War. 

Young Ulysses Grant went to this war as lirst lieutenant, and fought 
the Mexicans in many bloody battles. He was a daring young otticer, 
and his men ibllowed willingly wherever he led. In one of the hardest 
battles in this war with Mexico — the battle of Monterey — the American 
soldiers charged into the town and then got out of ammunition — that is, 
powder and shot. To get any more, some one would have to ride straight 
through the fire of the Mexicans, who were in the houses of the town; 
so the general did not think he could order any soldier to do this. But he 
asked who would do it. That is what is meant by calling for volunteers. 

Lieutenant Grant at once said he would go. He mounted his horse, 
but slipped over on the side furthest from the houses in which the Mexi- 
cans were hiding. Then he set his horse on a gallop, and so dashed 
through the town and past all the hostile houses, and brought back the 
ammunition in safety. 

He did many other brave and soldierly things when he was a young 
officer in this war with Mexico, but he was always such a modest nmn 
that he never liked to tell of his courageous deeds. AYhen he did, he 
would generally say: "0, well; the battle would have been won, just as 
it was, if I had not been there." The brave men and the bravest boys, 
you know, never boast. 

In another of these battles in the Mexican war — it has a long, hard 
name — Chepultepec, young Grant was so bold and brave that his name 
was picked out as that of one of the bravest soldiers in the fight. 

At another time, Avhen a strong fort was in the path of the Americans, 
Lieutenant Grant dragged a small cannon away up into a church steeple, 
and pointing it at the fort, tired his cannon balls so swift and straight 
and sure that the Mexican soldiers had to run out of the fort, and the 
Americans marched into it and soon after took the city it had defended. 
And when the news of this tight was sent home to the Ignited States, 
young Grant's brave act was made a part of it, and he was jiromoted to 
be a captain. The Mexicans were defeated in numy battles, and, at last 
the cruel war was ended. The Americans were victorious and marched 
back north to their homes. 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



63 



Then Captain Grant married his wife ; but, soon after, he had to go 
without her to California nnd Oregon, wliere his regiment was sent. He 

had a hard time 
^^'-\ i getting there, for 

the dreadful cholera 
broke out while 
the soldiei'S were on 
the way, and if it 
had not been for 
Captain Grant's 
bravery and devo- 
tion most of the 
soldiei's and their 
wives and chil- 
< I ren would have 
( 1 ied. 

You see, a man 
can be just as 
i)rave taking care 
of sick people as 
when lighting in 
liattle. 

After he had been 
in Oregon for a 
while he got tired 
of doing nothing, 
so he gave up being 
a soldier, and went 
back to his little 
farm near St. Louis, 
in Missouri. He 
lived in a 1 o g - 
house on this farm 
with his wife and children, and at times was quite poor. He 
tried farming, and buying and selling horses and collecting bills, 
and, at last, moved from St. Louis to the town of Galena, in Illi- 




GRANT AFTER THE BATTLE OF BEIjMONT. 



64 ULYSSES S GRANT. 

nois, where he was a tanner and made leather with his father and 
brothers. 

While Grant was an nnknuwn tanner in Illinois a dreadful thing hap- 
pened in America. The Northern and Southern States, which, joined 
together, made these United States of America, became angry with each 
other over things that, some day, you will learn all about in school. 

The South said : "We won't stay in the Union any longer." 

The North said : " You've got to stay. We won't let you go." 

But the South determined to go, and, in the year 1861, they had gone 
and had made a new nation of themselves. Then the Nortli said the 
South could not go and should not go, and tried to keep them in the 
Union by force. 

They began t(j tight with eacli other, and there was a terrible war in 
the land. We call it now the War of the Kebellion, or the Civil War. 

Cai)tain Grant joined the army at once and marched away to the war 
with some soldiei's from his own town, and, after a while, he was given 
connnand of a regiment and made a colonel. Soon after that he was 
promoted to be a brigadier-general. 

After the war had been going on for several months the men who were 
at the head of things found out what a good soldier General Grant was, 
and he was given command of a large number of men and marched 
with them against the Confederates, as the Southern soldiers were 
called. 

There were some hard battles fought, among them that of Belmont, on 
the Mississippi, at which village a severe engagement took place. But 
Grant was victorious, and at last he got the Confederate soldiers cooped 
up in a place called Fort Donelson. 

When the general of the Confederate soldiers asked General Giant 
how he could save his soldiers and get out of the fort alive, the General 
said: " Unconditional surrender." That means, give me your fort and 
all your soldiers and guns and flags and s\\ords. Then 1 will not 
tight you. If you will not do this, I shall make you. 

There was no other way, so the Comfederates surrendered Fort Donel- 
son. It was a great victory for the Northern soldiers, and everybody 
l)raised General Grant. Then he marched to another place. It was 
called Shiloh. There was a terrible battle here. At first it was almost 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



65 



a defeat for the Union soldiers, but General Grant stuck to it and fought 
so bravely, that at last the Confederates were beaten and driven back. 




GEANT AT SHlL,OH. 



It was the first great battle of the war. It continued through two 
April days— Saturday and Sunday. The Confederates were led by their 
best and bravest general, Albert Sidney Johnston. Had it not been for 

5 



66 ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

General Grant's bravery, determination, persistence and good leadei'sliip, 
the Northern troops would surely have been beaten, and the Union cause 
would have been sadly put back. 

But he stuck to it. He must win, that was all. And he did win. 
He rode up and down the line all that terrible Saturday and Sunday, 
giving orders, directing and encouraging his men. For he knew that they 
were mostly soldiers who had never seen a battle, and he knew that un- 
less they were made braver by the courage and bravery of their leaders, 
they would not make good soldiers. 

So all through this dreadful battle of Shiloh, in which the dash and 
bravery of the South first met the courage and endurance of the North, 
General Grant was in the thick of it, inspiring his soldiers, bringing vic- 
tory out of defeat, and showing the world what a great general he really 
was. 

So he kept driving the Confederate soldiers off whenever he fought 
them. They were brave, too, for they also were Americans. But they 
had not so great a geneial to lead them in battle. At last Grant got the 
Southern army cooped up in a town called Yicksburg. He marched his 
soldiers against it and built forts around it and banged away at it with 
his great cannons until at last, when the Confederates in the town could 
get no help and could not get away, they gave up the town and all its 
forts and soldiers and guns to General Grant. That was the surrender 
if Yicksburg. It was another splendid victory. 

Then General Grant was promoted to be a nrnjor-general, and marched 
off to fight more of the bold Southern soldiers. He fought them again at 
a place called Chattanooga, among the mounttdns. This was so hard a 
battle and so great a victory for Geneial Grant that the United States 
gave him a gold medal to remember it. Then he was given command of 
all the armies of the United States. So far he had fought in the West. 
Now he came East and took the lead of all the Northern soldiers in Vir- 
ginia, which was called the Army of the Potomac. He fought the Con- 
federates and their brave leader, General Lee, for a whole year in Vii'ginia. 
There were some dreadful battles. Tliere never w^ere harder ones in all 
the world. But General Grant knew that if he wished to win, he must 
fight hard and terribly. The hardest fighting of all that cruel war was 
now to come, you see. It was in the region that separated the two capi- 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



67 



tills — Washington, the capital of the United States, and Kichniond, the 

Southern capital. 

Much of the lighting was in a section covered with thick woods and 

underbrush, and called "The Wilderness." For sixteen days the two 

armies faced each other 
■' in this wilderness, so 

close together that they 
could talk across, and 
so, watching by night 
and fighting by day, the 
two generals, Lee, the 
Confederate, and Grant, 
the Union leader, fought 
each other in the most 
tremendous and des- 
])erate battles of modem 
times. 

They ended at last, 
not by really defeating 
Lee, but by forcing him 
back, inch by inch, un- 
til Grant and his sol- 
diers got nearer to Kich- 
niond. You see, the 
men of the North and 
the men of the South 
had grown now to be 
trained and courageous 
soldiers, and they were 
so equally matched in 
numbers, bravery and 

determination, and were so ably led by their commanding generals that 

the conflict was a stubborn and desperate one. 

But General Grant would not be defeated. He never gave up; and 

when, in the hot weather, things seemed going badly and he was asked what 

he meant to do, he said, "Fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer." 




GRANT AT WINDSOR CASTLE. 



68 ULYSSES S GRANT. 

It did take all summer, and all the winter, too; but, at last, this groat 
soldier was successful. The Southerners were beaten, and their gallant 
leader. General Lee, at a place called Appomattox, on the ninth of April, 
18B5, surrendered all his soldiers and flags and guns to General Grant. 
It was the end to a long and bitter war. Probably no other soldier in 
America could have defeated General Lee and his soldiers except General 
Grant. The Southern soldiers were brave and determined ; they were 
desperate ; for they knew if they did not beat Grant and capture Wash- 
ington the cause of the South must be given up. 

So they fought on, even after they began to get hungry and ragged, and 
the South was poor and empty. Gradually, however, they grew weaker; 
and still General Grant kept at it, forcing them back, back, until at last 
they Hed from Richmond. The Southern soldiers wei-e beaten or cap- 
tured, and, as I have told you, General Lee surrendered at last to General 
Grant at Appomattox. The war was over. The North had won the great 
tight that had lasted thi'ough four terrible years, and General U. S. Grant 
was hailed as "the Conqueror." 

It is hard for the boys and girls who have quarreled and got the best 
of it, not to clap their hands and talk big. It is even harder ibr men 
and women. But General Grant, when he had won the victory, would 
not "crow" over the defeated Southerners. "They are Americans," he 
said. 

He gave them back their horses so that they could plough their farms 
for planting; he gave them food and clothes, and sent them away friends; 
he said to North and South alike: "The war is over. Let us have 
peace." 

Of course his great success made him a hero. He was one. But he 
hated to be so talked about ; he never made a show of himself, nor said, 
as a good many boys and men do when they have done something fine : 
" Look at me ! " General Gi-ant was quiet, modest and silent. Of course, 
the world tliought all the more of him because he did not try to put him- 
self forward. His own land thought so much of him that they twice made 
him President of the IJnited States, just as they did Washington. 
It was a pretty good rise for a little Western farmer boy and tanner, wasn't 
it ? After he was through being President he left his country and trav- 
eled around the world, and the world did him honor. 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



69 



Kings and queens and princes invited him to their palaces and were 
glad to see him. He visited the Queen of England in her palace of 
Windsor Castle ; he talked with the soldiers and statesmen of the world, 




GHAWT IN JAPAN. 



while emperors honored him as one of the world's famous men, and cities 
welcomed him as the foremost general of the day and the man who had 
been President of the world's mightiest Republic. 



70 ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Amid all these festivities, in all lands and in all scenes set to do him 
honor. General Grant was still the same modest, quiet, silent man he had 
been all his life. The brilliant carnival at Havana, which he saw and 
which honored him, the curious and strange surroundings in far-off Japan, 
where they were beginning to think and act for themselves ; the court 
of China, which few Americans had ever seen ; the storied lands of the 
East — Jerusalem, Damascus, Constantinople, Alexandria — all these he 
visited, and in all he was welcomed and pointed out to the boys and 
girls of every nation, tribe and land as the great American — the visitor 
from the land beyond the sea. Great men, wherever he went, called 
upon him and made friends with him, and, as I have said, the people 
everywhere, in Japan and China, and Egypt and Turkey, and Eussia and 
Germany, and Italy and France and England ran after him just as their 
kings and princes had done. They hurrahed for him and made much of 
him — more than any num in all the world had ever before been so hon- 
oi-ed and entertained. 

For, you see, people everywhere knew that General Gi'ant was a great 
num, who, by his patience, his perseverance, liis wisdom and his will had 
carried a mighty nation through a terrible war, won it ; liad been made 
the chief nmn of that nation, and shown all the workl how a man can 
be a great soldier and yet a quiet, simple, modest man. But they were 
to see him fight one other battle — the hardest that any boy or girl, any man 
or woman can fight — the battle against wrong and deatli. He came back 
from his travels round the world, and as he did not like to be idle, he put 
what money he had into business and began, so he thought, to groAvrich. 
He made his home in New York City, in a fine house which the people 
who honored him had given him as a token of their respect and 
affection and their pride in the man who had done so much for them in 
four years of war, and who had governed his native land as President 
through eight years of peace. 

But his business ventures turned out badly. A wretched man worked 
against him, using his honorable name to mislead the people, and taking 
for himself both their money and that of General Grant. 

All of a sudden the end came. The bad man ran away and General 
Grant found himself without a cent. All his money was gone, and, 
worse than that, others who had trusted in him had lost their money, 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



71 



too. It broke the great general down. It almost defeated the soldier 
who had never known defeat. It made him weak and sick. 
- — But, just as 




he had 
courage- 
he faced 
bravely, 
to make 
and, be- 



marched to war 
ously, so, now, 
disaster just as 
He set to work 
his losses good, 
cause all the world wished 
to hear about him, he be- 
gan to write the story of 
his life and his battles. 

He kept himself alive to 
do this. For over a year 
he fought ruin and a terri- 
ble pain as stoutly as he 
had ever battled with real 
soldiers, while all the world 
looked on in love and pity, 
and kings and beggars sent 
him words of sympathy. 
He won the fight, for he did 
not give up until his book 
was finished. Then he died. 
On the twenty-first of 
July, in the year 1885, on 
the mountain-top to which 
he had been carried, near 
Saratoga, in New York, 
General Grant died, and 
all the world mourned a 
great man gone. 

The world mourned; 
men and women everywhere had learned to honor the great general as 
much for his victories over disaster, disgrace and pain as for his con- 
quests in war and his governing in peace. His funeral, on Saturday, 



GENERAL GRANTS HOUaK, N LJ VV VORK; 1885. 



72 ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

August 8, 1885, was one of the grandest public ceremonials ever seen in 
America. The President of the United States, senators, governors, gen- 
erals, judges and famous men came to New York to show their soitow 
and esteem, and the poor boy of the western prairies was buried amid 
the solemn tolling of bells and firing of cannon, while all people and all 
lands sent words of sorrow and of sympathy to the Republic which had 
so honored him in death as it had honored him in life. 




Upon a beauti- 
beautiful park in 
a stately nionu- 
tomb. In the 
in the State from 
from poverty to 
splendid monu- 
his honor. 

His is not an uncommon name, and yet in all America, in all the 
world, there is but one Grant ! 

His story is one from which even the smallest boy and the tiniest 
girl can learn something. For it teaches them to be persistent, yet 



GRANT'S FUNERAL PROCESSION. 



ful knoll in a 
Usew York rises 
ment above his 
City of Chicago, 
which he came 
fame, another 
ment towers in 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 73 

modest; strong, yet simple; magnanimous in victory; patient in distress 
and defeat. 

He was a great soldier, but he hated war ; yet, when he had to fight, 
he did fight, and nothing could put him aside from the end he had in 
view. 

Though he became the foremost man of the world, he was always a 
quiet, modest and simple American gentleman, and, when he had to face 
both pain and loss, he did so patiently, uncomplainingly and heroically, 
never giving in until he had done what he had determined to do. To 
be a great soldier is a fine thing ; to be a noble, truthful, simple man is 
still finer. General Grant was both ; and while the boys and girls of 
America will never forget the battles and victories won. for their sake, 
let them also never forget that it was his simplicity, his loyalty, his 
devotion, his persistence and his honor that made all t'le world respect 
and love Ulysses Simpson Grant as a great American. 






THE STIRRING STORY OF 

Robert E. Lee, 



General of the Confederate Armies. 




CADET LEE. 



(74) 



THIS is to tell YOU the story of Robert E. Lee. 
Every boy and girl in America knows who 
he was — a great American soldiei'. 

But he was moie than a great soldier, he was 
a hero, and this is a hero story. Is there any 
boy or girl who does not like to hear about a 
hero? You know wliat a hero is, do you not? 
It is one who does gi'eat deeds in a grand way. 

Ever since the world began there have been 
heroes. Some have been soldiers, some have 
been kings, some have been just plain, poor men 
or boys. But the world has liked to hear their 
stories — from David, the boy who killed Go- 
liath the giant, to George Washington, who 
delivered his land from tyranny. 

this dear America, which is our native 
have had many heroes. They have 
defended us in danger, fought for us in war, cared 
for us in peace, and every boy and girl in Amer- 
ica is told the story of their lives and taught to 
love and respect and honor them. 

It is the story of one of these brave and heroic 
men that I wish now to tell you — the stoiy of 




ON THE EVE OF GETTYSBURG.— General Lee Directing the Battle. 



II 



ROBERT E. LEE. 75 

Robert E. Lee, who fought long and bravely for what he believed to be 
the rights and the liberty of his fellow-men in the southern half of 
the United States of America. Listen to his story. 

Many years ago, when your grandfather's grandfather was helj^ing to 
make the Fourth of July, a certain brave and gallant soldier fought in 
almost all the battles of the American Revolution. People called him 
"Light-horse" Harry Lee. This was because he was the leader of a 
number of dashing, fast-riding soldiers or cavalry called ''light-horse," 
because the riders were dressed and armed as lightly as jtossible. In this 
dress they could ride swiftly and act quickly. 

"Light-horse" Harry Lee was a splendid horseback rider, and his swift 
and daring dashes with his light-horse legion did a great deal toward 
whipping the British and making the American Revolution a success. 
Genei'al Washington thought very much of this brave Virginian horse- 
man, and, when the war was over, wrote him a letter in which he sent 
him his " love and thanks " for what he had done in the Americnn Revo- 
lution. And, when the great and good AVashington died, at his beautiful 
home at Mount Vernon, it was his friend the dashing cavaliy soldier who 
spoke those splendid words about the greatest American — words which, 
1 hope, you all know by heart: "Washington! first in war, first in peace 
and first in the hearts of his countrymen." 

Nearly twenty-five years after the American Revolution ended in suc- 
cess, when "Light-horse" Harry Lee had been Governor Lee of Virginia, 
and was writing a book about the American Revolution, a little baby boy 
was born into his pleasant Virginia home. This baby was named Robert 
Edward Lee, and he was to grow up to become an even greater and nobler 
man than his famous father. 

Robert E. Lee was born on the nineteenth of January, 1807 — the very 
year in which our great American poets, Longfellow and Whittier, were 
born. His father's house was at a beautiful country place in Virginia, 
called Stafford. It was in Westmoreland County, on the Potomac River, 
the very county in Virginia in wliich George Washington was born, and 
on the banks of the same Potomac River. 

He was a good boy in eveiything, good in his home, good in his school, 
good in his looks, and good in his ways. His father was not very well 



76 ROBERT E. LEE. 

\vhen Robert was a little boy and bad to be away from home a great deal 
hunting for good health ; so Robert's mother brought her boy up. 

She brought him up well and made a man of him, because she made 
him true and manly from the start. He was never what boys call a 
"sissy" just lici-msc ho wns mild and goor], l)ut be was a manly, brave, 



'^:^'\r^M 




TOUNG LEE RIDING IN FRONT OF " STAFFORD," VIRGINIA, THE MANSION OP 
"LIGHT-HORSE" HARRY LEE. 

true-hearted little fellow, kind to all about him, always in love with bis 
mother, always obeying her, attentive to his studies, doing his duty in 
every way as a real boy should. 

When Robert was four years old his father moved from bis country 
home at Staftbrd to the little city of Alexandria, quite near to Wash- 
ington, the capital of the nation. 

There Robert went to school in a queer, old-fashioned, yellow bouse 



ROBERT E. LEE. 77 

that is still standing in Alexandria, and is still used for a boy's school. 
Its right name was Hallowell's School, tVoui the master who kej^t it; but 
the boys wlio went there called it, because of its yellow walls, " Brimstone 
Castle." 

When Robert was eleven years old his father, the famous '■ Light-horse" 
Harry Lee of the American Revolution, died in Georgia, where he had 
gone for his health. The fatherless boy clung closer to his mother than 
ever, and determined to do everything he could to help her ; but he had 
such a great respect for his father's memory, and felt so much pride in 
the deeds his famous father had done in the cause of liberty and his native 
land, that when the time came for him to decide what he would do when 
he became a man, he declared he would be a soldier just as his father 
had been. 

So he went to West Point, the famous Military Academy on tlie banks 
of the Hudson Rivei', where the United States trains boys to lead its 
armies and tight its battles. 

Robert E. Lee stayed I'oui- years at West Point. He entered there as a 
"pleb," or new boy, in 1825, when he was eighteen years old, and leaving 
it, or "graduating" as it is called, as Lieutenant Lee in 1829. 

He did finely at that famous school. He was what they called a 
model cadet — always spick and span in his gray and white soldier suit, 
always at the head in his studies, always ready in his duties, in his 
drill, and in all he had to do. He never received a demerit, or bad 
mark, in all the four years that he was a cadet at West Point. Think 
of that! 

They said, there, that cadet Lee kept his gun so bright and clean that 
the inspecting officer could fairly see his face in its gleaming barrel and 
its polished stock. 

He was such a fine scholar at West Point that when he got through 
and graduated he stood second in his class — that is, next to head, you 
know. 

This gave him a chance to choose just where he would like to be in 
the army when he came out of West Point. 

He joined what is called the Engineer Corps, the pick of the Avhole 
army. 

The Engineer Corps is made up of men who look after building the forts 



78 



ROBERT E. LEE. 



and defences of our harbors, set our river channels straight, and protect 
the kind from the sea as well as from the enemy. 

It is a tine position for a young officer, and generally gives him 
pleasant places to live in and agreeable things to do. Soldiers like it 






4^^ \ %/ I 




"ALWAYS TO BE FOUND WHERE THE FIGHTING WAS THE FIEKCEST." 

better than being sent off to lonely posts or to watcliing Indians, and it 
gives them a tine training in how to do things about forts and lighting. 
Lieutenant Lee was stationed at different places along the Atlantic 
coast. He helped plan and build Fortress Monroe, on beautiful Hampton 
Roads, in Virginia; he was stationed in Washington in one of the offices 



ROBERT E. LEE. 79 

of the big War Department; he helped lay out the boundary line between 
the States of Ohio and Michigan; he looked after the improvement of the 
harbor of St. Louis, and the changes that were made in the shifting 
channel of the mighty Mississippi River; he superintended the building 
of the forts in New York harbor, and, when he got back from a war, 
which I will soon tell you about, he was made Superintendent of the very 
place he had gone to school— the Military Academy at West Point; after 
that he had command of all the United States troops in Texas. He was 
Second Lieutenant in 1829, then First Lieutenant, then, in 1838, Captain 
in the regular army— so, you see, he kept going right on in the world, 
and was a great deal thought of in the army. 

The United States did not have a very big army in those days, but 
whenever there was a war it grew quickly. In the year 1846 there came 
about a war between the United States and its next-door neighbor, the 
republic of Mexico. 

Never mind what it was all about, you will learn that when you study 
the history of the United States. It was a cruel war, as all war is cruel ; 
but it was a great chance for Americans who wished to be real soldiers 
to show what they were good for and what they could do. 

They did well. They marched into Mexico, which is just the other 
side of Texas, you know, and they fought so bravely that in less than 
two years they had conquered Mexico and added to the United States all 
the land from Texas to Calilbrnia and the Pacific Ocean. 

In this war Robert E. Lee made a splendid soldier. He was so brave 
and gallant, so ready and reliable, that he was always to be found where 
the fighting was fiei-cest. And yet he was so gentle and kind that he 
always struck at the point in the enemy's line where they could be 
beaten the quickest, so as to finish the fight with the smallest loss of 
men in killed and wounded. 

There was one battle in Mexico in which the young engineer was 
almost the leader and conqueror. This was the time when he got the 
best of the Mexicans at a place called Cerro Gordo, high up in the moun- 
tains. The Mexican soldiers held the zig-zag road up the mountains. It 
ran between great cliffs and chasms, and had cannons all along so as to 
keep the Americans from coming up. But Captain Lee, the engineer, said : 

"If we can't march against them, we must get behind them. I'll 



80 



ROBERT K LEE. 



try." He hunted all about for a good place, and at last saw a way by 
which a sort of a patli could be cut through the mountains and come out 
behind the Mexicans. He did this so carefully, so swiftly and so silently 




CAPTAIN LEE AT CERRO GORDO. 



that before the Mexicans knew what they were about he was right 
upon them. 

Captain Lee led the way, and showed the men just what to do. They 
lowered the cannons by ropes down the steep cliff and hauled them up 



ROBERT E. LEE. 81 

on the opposite hill-side ; they cut, and climbed, and jumped, and dug 
until they got all the men, all the horses and all the cannons up behind 
the Mexican line. Then they turned their guns upon the enemy, and so 
surprised and terrified them that almost without a blow all that part of 
the Mexican Army surrendered to the American commander, General 
Scott. 

This was one of Captain Lee's victories in Mexico. It was one of the 
kind he liked, because he had to think it out. It was the best kind of 
victory, too, for he won it without having to shoot down and kill very 
many men. 

For his courage and his soldiership he was again and again promoted 
— Captain, Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel. He was on the staff of 
the commander, Winfield Scott, the General of the American Army ; and, 
after the Mexican war Avas over, General Scott declared that his success 
in Mexico was largely due " to the skill, valor and undaunted courage of 
Kobert E. Lee." That is a good deal to say about one man, is it not, 
and fine, too ? 

After the Mexican War was over and all the soldiers had come home 
again. Colonel Lee was made Superintendent of the Military Academy at 
West Point, as I have already told you. 

For three years he was in charge there, directing the soldier boys in 
their studies and their drilling at that splendid military school on the 
banks of the Hudson. Then he was sent to join the army stationed in 
Texas. He was Colonel of a cavalry regiment, the same position that 
his famous father, " Light-horse Harry," had held in the Army of the Re- 
public. Later on he was placed in command of all the soldiers in what 
was called the Department of Texas. 

While he was home on a long vacation at his beautiful home in Vir- 
ginia called Arlington, just opposite Washington, the Civil War broke out. 

You know what that was, of course — the dreadful and terrible trouble 
between two parts of our dear native land — the North and the South. 

It could not be settled peaceably. Men thought so differently about 
things that one side would not give in to the other, and so they just had 
to fight it out. 

It was a long and bitter war. Many good and brave men were killed 
on both sides, and there was soriow and distress all over the land. 

6 



82 ROBERT E. LEE. 

But when the war was over, the people of the United States became 
better friends than they had ever been before, and there will never be 
such a war again. 

When the war broke out Colonel Robert E. Lee did not know just what 
to do. But he thought the matter over long and deeply, and then he 
said : " I cannot light against my relatives, my children, my home. I 
have been a soldier of the United States, but I am a son of Virginia, and 
I must do as my State does." 

He resigned from the United States Army, giving up his position of 
Colonel, and was made Major-General of the forces of the State of Virginia. 

When Virginia went out of the Union — that is, when her people said, 
" We will not belong to the United States any longer, we will join the 
Confederate States," Colonel Lee said, "Then I must go with you. " 

He was appointed military adviser to Jefferson Davis, the President of 
the newly-formed Confederate States — for so the States that went out of 
the Union called themselves. 

A year later he was made Commanding General of the Army of 
Northern Vii-ginia, and for three yeai's he led the brave Southern soldiers 
who fought for the Confederacy against the brave Northern soldiers who 
fought for the Union. 

What a splendid leader of those gallant Southern soldiers General Lee 
was ! He knew just where to have them march, just when to have them 
fight, just what to have them do. 

Richmond, in Virginia, was the capital of the Confederate States, just 
as Washington is the capital of the United States. General Lee sur- 
rounded it with forts and defended it so skilfully that the Northern sol- 
diers could not get into it, though they tried again and again, and when- 
ever they tried to get through any of the approaches to the city. General 
Lee would march his soldiers against them and fight long and desperately. 

Boys, when they play at any good game, like a boy to be their leader. 
You can do so much better if you have someone to follow, someone who 
shows you what to do. 

It is just so with men — especially with soldiers — and General Lee was 
just such a leader. 

His soldiers learned to love him and look up to him almost as you do 
to your own "father. They called him " Marse Bob " and " Uncle Bobby " 



ROBERT E. LEE. 



83 



—not to his face, of course, but when they talked together about him. 
He was so kind, and patient, and gentle ; he was always trying to help 
them, and cared for them so much that they knew he was their friend, 




FOKTIFYING BICHMOND. 



even when he made them march the longest, and even when he made 
them fight the hardest. 

But a soldier has to fight, you know. That is why he is a soldier, and, 



84 ROBERT E. LEE. 

although General Lee was always calm, and quiet, and gentle in speech 
and manner, he was a great soldiei- and sometimes a tierce tighter. 

One day, when there was a terrible battle raging, he saw his soldieis 
beaten back by the Union troops from a place he wished them to keep. 
"They must not lose it," he said, and he waved his sword above his head 
and dashed to the front to lead his soldiers into the battle again. But 
his men knew that General Lee's life was precious ; that if he were killed 
there would be no one to lead them to victoiy. 

"No, no, General!" they cried; "Go back! Go back, Lee, to the 
rear! We'll take it! " 

And when he dropped back, he saluted his soldiers for their love and 
care for him, and pointed at the Union line with his sword. 

"Forward," he said, and his men charging forward, thinking of their 
brave and gallant leader, won back the place from which they had been 
driven. 

Once when his own son, who was also the commander of a large Con- 
federate force of cavalry (as his father and grandfather luid been, you 
know), was in danger of being surrounded by a great force of the enemy, 
his father, the General, cried out cheerfully, " Keep your men together, 
General, I'll get you out of this," and he did. 

" General," a young officer shouted, dashing up to him, just as a great 
battle was to begin, " The Federals are advancing." General Lee looked 
at him with a funny smile, enjoying the young officer's excitement. 
" "Well," he said, just as cool and calm as you please, " I did hear tiring, 
and I was just beginning to think it was time some of you lazy young 
fellows were coming to tell me what it was all aliout." 

And I suppose that made the young officer laugh I'ight on the edge of 
that battle, and to get from his calm and cool General all the more 
courage to do his best. 

So, you see, while he was brave and serious, he could see the funny 
side of things, too, and did all he could to make his soldiers bright as 
well as brave, hopeful when things went wrong, calm in the midst of 
danger. This is what makes a real soldier, you know. 

The Xorth had more men and more money than the South ; they kept 
on fighting, too, for neither side was willing to give in. But the North 
for a long time could get no soldier who was as great a general as Lee. 



ROBERT E. LEE. 85 

On the third day of June, 1 862, he was made General of the Army of 
Northern Virginia. That post he held through the war, under that name 
he led the Southern soldiers to battle and often to victory, while, by his 
wise way of directing his men, he kept the Northern troops away from 
Richmond for nearly three years. 

He won the Battle of Malvern Hill, he won the Second Battle of Bull 
Run, he won the Battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Twice 
he marched his soldiers into the Northern lines, and at Gettysburg, in 
Pennsylvania, in 1863, he fought a terrible two-days' battle which called 
for all the strength and all the skill of General Meade, the Northern 
leader, to turn it into a victory for the Union. 

Four generals of the Union led the armies against him in four great 
attempts to defeat and conquer him. But each time Lee was more than 
a match, and they fell back from Richmond, defeated. 

At last, in the beginning of the year 1864, General U. S. Grant, who 
had been a successful leader of the Union soldiers in the West, was called 
to the East to take command of the armies of the United States. Then 
there came a change. 

General Grant knew all about General Lee. They had both been in the 
Mexican War. He knew that to win he must do his very best. When 
someone asked him how long it would take him to get to Richmond, 
General Grant said, " Well, about four days, if General Lee is willing ; 
if he isn't, well, it's going to take a good deal longer." 

And it did. General Lee did object ; he objected with guns and swords 
and men, and the soldiers of the North and the soldiers of the South 
fought many terrible battles. The fighting grew fiercer and hotter. 
Grant would never give up, but kept pressing on. Bit by bit the Union 
soldiers drew about Richmond ; bit by bit the Confederate soldiers gave 
way, as their money, their strength and their numbers began to fail. 
But they fought gallantly still. General Lee was watchful and deter- 
mined. His eyes saw every weak spot in the Union line; he could 
spread out his brave but tired and hungry soldiers so as to make the 
best show, and his men loved him so well and followed him so willingly 
that he was able to keep up the fight longer than any other general could 
have done. Never before in all the world had so many men been brought 
face to face in battle, and dreadful battles they were, there in the swamps 



86 



ROBERT E. LEE. 



and woods and fields of Virginia, in the year 1864. It was because both 
sides were brave men, and because brave and great generals led them, 
that these battles were so fierce, for Grant was bound to win and Lee 
was bound not to let him. 

But when, at last, all hope of successfully defending Richmond was 




"HE W^AVED HIS S'WORD ABOVE HIS HEAD AND DASHED TO THE FKONT." 

gone, when the bi-ave chieftain had tried to break his way through the 
lines of Union soldiers, who now surrounded his army, and had failed, 
when he saw that to keep u]i the fight any longer was only a useless 
killing of men, a thing he always hated and tried to stop, then General 



ROBERT E. LEE. 87 

Lee laid down his sword and suncndered himself and his army to his 
great foeuuin, General Grant, a man as gentle, as honorable and as kindly 
hearted as was lie. 

It was a sad day for General Lee, when he at last determined to give 
n]3 the battle. 

At first, when one of his soldiers saw how useless it would be to 
fight any longer, and told the General that he ought to surrendei-, the 
grand old soldier straightened himself up and said : 

"Surrender? No, sir. I have too numy good fighting men for that." 

But General Grant had more, and so, as 1 told you. General Lee saw 
this at last, and to stop the killing of any more brave men, he gave it 
up — that is, he surrendered. 

It all came to an end at last at a place called Appomattox Court 
House, in Virginia. It was on the ninth day of April, 1865. The two 
Generals met between the lines at a farm-house near an apple orchard, 
and talked it all over. Both were glad to stop fighting; both were 
proud of the heroism of their own men, and proud, also, of the courage 
of the other side, for all were Americans. 

General Grant said to General Lee, " If you will only promise for 
yourself and your soldiers not to fight any more against the United 
States, that is all I ask." 

General Lee promised, and so the greatest civil war that ever was 
fought was ended in the kindest way just because both the leaders were 
great as well as good, and when they made a promise would keep it. 

Then General Lee rode back to his army and told his men what he 
had done. "The war is over," he said. 

But when his soldiers heard it, although they were hungry and sick 
and tired out and weary with so much fighting, they crowded about 
their good General when he came back from arranging things with 
General Grant, and cried like children. 

"General, take back that word," cried one. "We'll die, but we won't 
surrender." 

General Lee looked on the brave men lovingly. 

"No, no," he said. "We have done all brave men can do. If I let 
another brave man be killed I should be a murderer. Go home to your 



88 ROBERT E. LEE. 

wives and children ; whatever may be my fate, you will be safe. God 
bless you all. Good-by ! " 

And then he turned and went into his tent. 

After President Lincoln was killed, there was some fear that the new 
President would do some harm to General Lee, because he had been the 
leader of the Confederate soldiers. But General Grant stood up boldly 
and said : 

"You must not touch him. I gave him my solemn promise that he 
should not be touched, and you must not let me break my word." 

So the great and terrible Civil War in the United States came to an 
end. Peace was in the land, and as men looked back and thought it all 
ovei", the one man who stood out before all the world as the greatest 
soldier of the South in all that long and bloody war was Robert E. Lee, 
the General of its Army, the son of brave "Light-horse" Harry Lee. 

When peace came and the soldiers had nothing to do in the way of 
war, General Lee went home a poor man. He had lost almost all he 
owned in those four dreadful years of war. 

But the people of his own State loved and honoi'ed him so much that 
they made him the head of one of the best schools in Virginia — Wash- 
ington College. And as soon as it was known that General Lee was to 
be the President of the College, young men flocked to it so that they 
might say they had General Lee for a teacher. He was as good a lesson 
himself as anything they could learn from books. Do you know how ? 
He was so fine a man that they looked up to him and tried to be as good 
and true and noble as he was. 

For five years he lived as Pi-esident of Washington College. Then, on 
the twelfth day of Octobei-, 1870, he died, there among his students and 
his books, a noble old man of sixty-three. 

He was a great soldier and a great man. He was such a good man, 
too. He loved little children dearly and always saluted every boy or 
girl who bowed or courtesied to him as he rode through the streets on 
his splendid big horse, " Traveler." 

Once he came upon some boys he knew who were quarreling. 
Lideed, they called each other names, and began to fight. 

" Oh, General ! " cried a little girl, running up to him, " please don't 
let them fight." 



ROBERT E. LEE. 89 

The General took the boys by the shoulder. 

"Come, boys, boys!" he said, gently. "That isn't nice. There is 
some better way to settle your quarrels than with your fists." 

And how he did love little girls. 

"Where is my little Miss Mildred?" he would ask when he got home 
from a ride or a walk, as the night was coming on. "She is my light- 
bearer. The house is never dark if she is in it." 

Was not that a sweet and pretty way to speak about his little 
daughter? Do you wonder that the children all loved him ? 

What made General Lee a great soldier was because he knew how to 
lead a smaller number of soldiers against a larger number and defeat the 
enemy by not letting them know what he was doing until he had done it. 

This is what is called strategy. It was by this that General Wash- 
ington won many battles in the Revolution, and in the same way 
General Lee was victorious over and over again in the Civil War. 

But he won quite as much by his great, gentle heart as by his flashing 
sword. After the war was over people loved him dearly, and since his 
death they have loved him even more, because, as they look back and 
see how good and grand a man he was, they forget that he failed ; they 
only remember how hard he tried and how well he did. All through the 
South he loved so well and which loved him so much, statues, to-day, 
are being built to keep alive the memory of his life. 

To-day, North as well as South, all America honors him, and as the 
years go by the boys and girls, who, as they grow up, will hear his name 
and know his story, will think of him not as Lee the Confederate General, 
but as Robert E. Lee, the soldier, the gentleman, the American. 




Franklin, 



FRANKLIN'S KITE LEADS THE 

WAY TO THE MODERN USE 

OP ELECTRICITX". 



The Candlemaker's Son, who with 
his Kite Discovered that Electricity 
is the cause of Lightning. 



"r\TD any of my little readers ever look at a lightning rod putting up 
-L/ from the roof of a house, and do you know what that lic-htnino- 
rod IS for ? I will tell you. When you hear the thunder in the l^eaven&^ 
there is a strange force which darts out in zigzag lines of fire, and if it 
strikes anything like a tree or a house, it tears it to pieces, and perhaps 
sets it on fire; but if it strikes a person or an animal, it does not break 
even the skin, but passes through them in the twinkling of an eye and 
kdls them. This strange force most people call lio-htniuG:, and the 
lightning rod is put on the house to catch it and carrv^it down into the 
earth before it strikes the building. 

Two hundred years ago nobody knew how to catch the liditnimr, and 
everybody stood in great di-ead of it. Now we know how^ to catch it 
and carry it away from our houses, and we also know how to make it 

(90) 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 91 

run along wires and carry messages from one friend to another so fast 
that, if you were a thousand miles away, your friend, if he wei'e at the 
end of the wire, would be receiving the message while you were at the 
other end sending it. 

We have also learned how to make it carry even the human voice for 
a thousand miles, so that if you were in New York you might step up 
to a little box, called the telephone, and talk into it, and your mother, 
father, or friend could hear your words plainly in Chicago, nearly a 
thousand miles away. It would pass so quickly that you and they could 
talk back and forth almost as easy and quickly as if you were in the 
same room. We also make this wonderful force pull our street-cars 
through the great cities, thus setting free the horses that used to have 
to do it. We also make it light our streets and houses, and we call it 
electricity. 

Is this not a very strange and a very wonderful power ? And would 
you not like to hear the story of the great man who first caught from the 
skies this vivid, flashing lightning, and found out that he could harness 
it, almost as easily as we can harness a horse, and make the very thing 
which people had always dreaded as a terrible destroyer, the best friend 
and servant of man ? Did you say you would like to hear his story ? I 
will tell it to you. His name was Benjamin Franklin. 

A very long time ago, perhaps about four hundred years, there lived 
in Northhamptonshire, England, a poor blacksmith whose name was 
Franklin. In that country at that time, the oldest son ahvays followed 
the same trade or work which his father followed. So the oldest son in 
the Franklin family always became a blacksmith, and he always got 
the property which belonged to his father when the father died. The 
other children had to get out and shift for themselves. The youngest 
son in one of the large Franklin families was named Josiah. He couldn't 
be a blacksmith, as his older brother took up that business and inherited 
his father's shop. So Josiah went out and gave himself to a man who 
made soap and tallow candles, and agreed to serve him, without any 
pay except his board and clothes, until he was twenty-one years of age. 

All this he did that he might learn the trade of a soap-boiler and candle- 
maker. When he was twenty-one his employer gave him, as was the 
custom, a new suit of clothes, a few dollars for his personal use, and a 



92 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

letter saying that he had learned his trade well. "With that letter to 
show, young Josiah was able to go and hire himself to work where he 
could get pay for his labor. The hired man nearly always lived in his 
employer's family, and received his board and a few dollars per month. 

After a little while, Josiah was married and continued to live in England 
and work at his trade until his wages were hardly sufficient to support 
himself, his wife and three children on the coarsest kind of food. He 
did, however, save up, in his earlier years, a little money, and the stories 
of the New World — America — kept coming to his ears. He heard that 
there were few candlemakers and soap-boilers in America, and that a 
young man who understood his trade would have a much better chance 
here than in England ; so in the year 1682, a little more than two 
hundred years ago, he took his wife and three children, and such 
clothing, bedding and household things as they could bring, on board 
a big sailing vessel and came to America. He landed in Boston, and 
soon set himself up as a soap and candlemaker. He found it much 
easier to support his family here than in the old country, and he became 
very much in love with his new home. 

In the year 1706, twenty-four years after Josiah Franklin and his wife 
and three children came to America, a little baby boy was born. Like 
his father, he proved to be the last child in the family, and his father 
named him Benjamin, You remember Jacob's youngest son was named 
Benjamin. But Ben Franklin had sixteen brothers and sisters older 
than himself. Don't you think that was a big family ? Seventeen boys 
and girls besides the mother and father! But you must remember they 
were not all then in the house. The oldest of his brothers were nearly 
thirty years of age when he was born, and they had gone into various 
kinds of business for themselves. 

Benjamin was a good boy and his father loved him very much ; 
you know how parents often love their youngest the best. The little 
fellow learned to read when he was very young, but he was only sent to 
school for two years, and then he was taken away, when he was only 
ten years of age, to work in his father's candle-shop. His business was 
to cut wicks for the candles, fill the moulds with the melted tallow, tend 
the shop and run the errands. But "Ben," as he was called, did not 
like this business. He would very much rather look in picture books 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



93 



and read the easy stories 
edge, and lie 
very quickly, 
to save some 
jump in a boat 
the boys. 
handle a boat 
swimmer. He 



He always loved to go down to the water's 
often did an errand 
running all the way 
time, that he might 
or go swimming with 
Thus he learned to 
and to be an expert 
heard the sailors talk 




about far-away 
countries, a n d 
the strange peo- 
ple and wonder- 
ful sights, and 

thought it would be a splendid 
thing to be a sailor, and he told 
his father how much he would 
like to be one and go to sea. 
But his father would not con-i 
sent, and so Benjamin, like an 
obedient son, gave it up, though 
he often lay awake at nights and thought how grand it would be to 



BEN FBANKLIW MOULDING CANDLES IN HIS 
FATHER'S SHOP. 



94 BENJA3IIN FRANKLIN. 

bound over the great billows and to visit all the countries of the world. 
Sometimes he would dream he was away on the ocean, and Avould wake 
up to find himself in his own little bed. 

Franklin was also a great lover of tishing. Every chance he got, he 
and his little boy companions would get their lines, and, rolling up their 
pants, would wade into the marsh and fish in a mill-pond. Sometimes 
the water was too cold, and besides he had heard it was not healthy to 
stand in the water. So he said to the boys that it would be a good 
thing to build a wharf to stand on as the men did for their work about 
the water. They all thought so too. 

There was a pile of stones not far away which were to be used to build 
a new house. So they said the men could get more for themselves, or, 
perhaps, they had more than they wanted ; and in the evening, when 
the men quit work, the boys slipped out — for they knew it was not just 
right — and they carried enough of these stones away to make them a 
good pier far out into the water. 

Next day when the workmen came they wondered where their rocks 
had gone. Upon searching around, they found what the mischievous 
boys had done, and, as they had seen them there often fishing, they knew 
just who had done it and went straight to their })arents about it. Some 
of the mothers and fathers only laughed, but Mr. Franklin took Ben aside 
and began to lecture him. Ben tried to argue with his father that the 
pier was very necessary as it kept the boys' feet dry while they fished, 
and ho pretended to think it was a good thing they had done. But Mr. 
Franklin told him that nothing was good or right that was not honest, 
and, to impi-ess the lesson on his mind, he gave Benjamin a sound 
thi'ashing and forbade his fishing there any more. Ever after that, Ben 
was an honest boy and an upright man. 

But Ben did not get over his desire to go to sea. He did not dare to 
ask permission, but he was always talking about what the sailors said, 
and using words which showed he had learned the difterent sails and 
much about ships. So his father grew afraid that his son would run 
away and go to sea as one of his other sons had already done. One day 
after Ben had been in the tallow-candle shop for two years — and was 
now ten years old — his father began to talk with him about other trades. 
Ue took him fre(|uently to walk and they would stop to look at different 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 95 

kinds of workmen, such as bricklayers, carpenters, iron-workers and 
many others. He hoped the boy would like some of these better than 
the life of a sailor, but Benjamin did not care for any of them. 

By this time he had, however, grown very fond of reading. He 
poured over his father's dull books and sold little things of his own to 
buy more. Often he would trade his old books at the second-hand book- 
stores for others he had not read. So Mr. Franklin, seeing he was so 
fond of reading books, thought it was best to make a printer of him. 
His oldest son, James Franklin, already had a printing office and press. 
Benjamin said he would like this trade, so he was apprenticed to his 
brother to learn it. 

When we say Ben was " apprenticed " we mean he was given to 
his brother to have as his own until he should be twenty-one years 
old. He was to work for his brother without any pay, except his 
board and clothing. As Benjamin was about eleven years old now, he 
would have to serve his brother for ten years to learn his trade. Ben- 
jamin liked this trade very much. He got to see many new books and 
could always borrow all he wanted, and used to sit up sometimes all night 
to read a book so he could return it, unsoiled, to the store in the morning. 

The boy took a great fancy to poetry and at odd moments wrote some 
verses himself. When he had quite a lot, he showed it to his brother 
James. Certainly it was, as Franklin afterwards called it, "wretched 
stuff," but James printed it and sent Ben around Boston to peddle it. 
He was doing this with much pride when his father laughed at him and 
made fun of his poetry, and told him he would always be a beggar if he 
wrote verses for a living. He stopped short his writing and peddling 
poetry. But he was bound to write, for he loved to do it, and I will 
tell you how he played a nice trick off on his brother : 

James Franklin published a little newspaper. It was Ben's duty 
after the paper was printed to carry loads of them around and deliver 
them to the subscribers. The boy read this paper, and he thought he 
could write as well as many whose articles were published in it. But he 
would not dare to ask his brother James to let him write, nor would he 
let anyone know what he wrote. His father would be sure to make fun, 
as he did of his poetry, if he saw it. So he wrote almost every week and 
slipped his pieces under the office door after it was closed. James 



96 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 






printed tliem and his father read them, but they did not dream that Ben 
wrote them. 

Now I will tell you of a way he saved money to buy books. Remem- 
ber he got no wages for his work, but he always had money. A boy is 
not of much account if he does not have money. When you see a boy 
r^ always going around 

without a cent, it is a 
pretty good sign he 
will never save any- 
thing. Franklin had 
got the notion that 
it was wrong to eat 
ni cat. Now, h i s 
bi'other paid his 
board, you know. So 
the boy told his broth- 
er if lie would give 
him half what his 
board cost he would 
board himself. As 
that would save 
James something, he 
agreed. Benjamin 
quit eating meat and 
lived on bread and 
other cheap foods. 
Thus, he saved money 
to buy books, and by 
eating only a bit of 
bread and a tart for 
dinner he had half an hour every day, while the others were eating 
heavy dinners, to devote to reading; and this is the way he educated 
himself. 

Would you think it strange if I told you that Benjamin did not like 
his brother James? It is a fact, he did not. They often quarrelled, for 




'"'"vV(.',']H 



THE BOY 1 : - : . : , ,(1 HIS CONTKIBUTION TO 

THE PAPER UJMDEK THE OFFICE DOOK. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 97 

James did not treat his little brotlier right and sometimes gave him 
beatings. I will tell you how he got free from him. 

One^day James printed something in his paper which made the Gov- 
ernor of the Colony mad. They arrested him and put him in j ail for a whole 
month. Benjamin published the paper while his brother was in prison, 
and he said some very ugly things about the government, but was careful 
not to say anything for which they could get him in prison. This pleased 
James very much. But when they let him out of prison they forbade his 
publishing the paper any longer. Now what was James to do ? He was a 
shrewd business man, so he said to Benjamin that he would set him free 
and run the paper in his name. So they destroyed the papers that 
bound the boy in law. Ben, however, said he would remain with his 
brother until he was twenty-one years old. This agreement was made 
and so it started, but soon James tried to impose on Ben as he had 
done before; but as Ben was no longer bound to him, he left him. Ben 
afterwards said that he did not do fairly in this, and he was sorry for it, 
thouo-h it was, perhaps, nothing more than James deserved. 

Be°njamin now tried to hire himself to other printers; but none ot 
them would take him because he had broken his contract with his 
brother. Besides they had all agreed together that when one ot then- 
apprentices left, none of the others should hire him. 

What was he to do? He was only seventeen years old, but he was 
not to be discouraged. Gathering a few of his books, he went aboard a 
sloop setting sail for New York. In that city he tried or days, but 
could get no work. Someone told him to try Philadelphia. It was 
a tedious and dangerous journey as it must be made by water, ihere 
were no railroads then. He took a sail-boat to Amboy, New Jersey. 
A storm came up and the boat was driven ashore, and the poor tright- 
ened boy lay all night in the little hold of the boat with the waves 
dashing over it, and the water, leaking through, soaked him to the skin 
It tool^him thirty-two hours to get to Amboy, and all that time he had 
neither a drink of water nor a bite to eat. ,, v . 

Havino- very little money he set out on foot and walked to Burlington. 
Here he was met by trouble he had not looked for. His ragged clothes 
wet and soiled, made him look like what we now call a tramp; but 
there were no tramps in those days. They thought he was a runaway 

7 



98 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

and came very near putting him in jail, and he says he was then sorry 
he had not remained in Boston with his brother James. 

But it was now too late to go back, so he found a man with a row-boat 
at Burlington who was going to Philadelphia, and Franklin agreed to go 
with him and help him row the boat to pay his passage. They arrived 
at Philadelphia in the night, but as there were then no street lamps in 
the city, they passed by without knowing it. At length they went 
ashore and made a fire to dry themselves, and waited until morning 
and rowed to the city. 

Poor Benjamin Franklin, all soiled, tired and very hungry, started up 
the street to find something to eat. He had no trunk or valise for his 
extra clothing, so he stuffed his extra stockings and shirt in his pockets. 
He soon found a baker shop and asked for biscuits as he used to buy in 
Boston. The baker did not know what they were. They did not make 
biscuits in Philadelphia. So Franklin asked him to give him threepenny 
worth of bread of any kind, as he was very hungry. The baker gave 
him three loaves, and, putting one under each arm, he chewed vigorously 
on the other as he walked along. Don't you suppose he looked very odd 
and funny walking along the streets in his soiled clothes with his pockets 
stuffed with socks and a shirt, a loaf of bread under each arm and eat- 
ing another? 

\Yell, so he did. And as he passed along a pretty girl, named De- 
borah Read, looked out of the door, and he saw her laughing " fit to kill," 
and making all manner of fun of him. His pride was stung, but ho was 
too hungry and helpless to do anything then. Many years afterwards he 
married this very girl, and she was very fortunate and proud to get him. 

Franklin soon found a place to work with a printer named Keimer, 
and he very quickly showed that he was quite different from other work- 
men and boys about the place. He knew all about printing, so he was 
a valuable workman, and he had read and knew so much in books that 
those who knew him liked to hear him talk, and they used to refer to 
him to settle disputes on all sorts of questions. Instead of spending his 
evenings at the tavern drinking or gossiping, as other young men did, 
he went to his room and read good books or went in the company of 
those of whom he could learn something. Such young men as these 
always attract the attention of others. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 99 

One day Mr. Keimer, the printer, looked out and saw two finely dressed 
gentlemen coming to his place. He went out to meet them and found 
it was no other than Sir William Keith, the Governor of Pennsylvania, 
and one of his friends. They had on silver knee-buckles and powdered 
wigs and ruffled shirts and gay-colored coats and silk stockings. Such 
fine people had never visited his shop before, and Keimer w^as much 
pleased, thinking what an honor it was to him, and, perhaps, he thought 
they might give him a big bill of printing to do. How great must 
have been his disappointment when the Governor asked to see a young 
man by the name of Benjamin Franklin. 

Franklin came out with his sleeves rolled up and wearing leather 
breeches — such as nearly all workmen wore in those days. He was 
quite surprised that the Governor should visit him, but was not ashamed 
to be an honest workman, and without ceremony he walked away 
between the two fine gentlemen to the tavern. Xow what do you sup- 
l)ose the fine Governor wanted with this common young pi-intcr in his 
leather breeches? He told him that he wanted him to start a printing 
office of his own, as none of the other men of the city were first-class 
workmen. Franklin was very proud of the Governor's good opinion, but 
told him that he could not think of starting for himself as he was too 
poor to buy a press and types of his own and he did not think his father 
would help him. 

The Governor wrote a letter to Franklin's father urging him to help 
his son, and sent Franklin to Boston, dressed up nicely, wearing a watch, 
and with money in his pocket, to carry the letter. His parents were 
delighted to see him looking so large and strong and so much improved 
in every way. But when he showed the Governor's letter, asking his 
father's aid in buying a press, he was told by the old gentleman that he 
was too young to go in business for himself. 

Franklin returned to Philadelphia with a heavy heart and reported to 
the Governor what had happened. The Governor seemed very much 
disappointed, and told Franklin that, if he would go to England to buy 
the presses and types, he would start him in business for himself. Ben- 
jamin agreed to do this, and at the appointed time called on the Gov- 
ernor to get the letters of introduction and credit which the Governor 
said he would give him so he could buy whatever he wanted. They 



100 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

were not ready, but the Governor told him he would send them to the 
ship with other mail and he would get them before landing in England. 

So Franklin went aboard the vessel and for many days had a delight- 
ful sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Just before they came to land, the 
mail-bags were opened, but what was his amazement to find that there 
was no letter from the Governor for him. They searched carefully all 
through the letters sent by the Governor to make sure, but there was 
not a word for or about Franklin or the printing press and types he was 
to buy. 

Here he was, a poor young man with no money and no friends, several 
thousand miles from home. It would take about six weeks to write to 
the Governor and hear from him. He thought it over and wondered if 
the Governor had forgotten it or just treated him meanly. A man on the 
ship told him that the Governor did many strange things, that he had 
no credit abroad, and could not have bought a printing press for himself, 
and that was the reason he had sent no letter of credit. Then Franklin 
made one of his wise sayings, " Fine clothes do not make a fine gentle- 
man," which we still often hear repeated. 

But Franklin had learned to depend on himself and knew his printer's 
trade well, and he at once got a position to set type in London, where he 
learned many things that he did not know before. One was to engrave 
pictures and handsome letters on metal. Another Avas to make printer's 
ink, and yet another how to cast type or letters. This was all very use- 
ful to liim in after years. 

We have told you that Franklin would not eat meat. He also lefused 
to drink wine or any intoxicating drink. Now, all of the English 
printers and laborers drank a great deal of beer, and wlicn lunch-time 
came, and Franklin sat down with his cup of milk or water, 
they laughed at him, and told him that water Avould make him 
weak and he would be of no account if he did not drink beer or whiskey 
or something, and eat meat to make him strong. 

FrankHn told them that was a mistake, and, to prove it, he lifted heavy 
weights and showed himself stronger than any man in the shop. One 
holiday in the summer they went out for a swim in the River Thames, 
and Franklin could swim farther and faster than any of them. They 
also thought as he had come from the " wild new world," he did not 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



101 



know much, but after they had talked to him a bit they found out he 
had read moi'o books than any of tliem, and instead of going out at 
nights he spent his time reading. There was a man near by who kept 
a second-hand bookstore, and Franklin used to pay him so much a week 
to let him take out books and read them. 

By and by lie found he had saved enough money to return to America, 
so he came back and got a position as a clerk in a store, but his em- 
ployer died and he went back to work at the printer's trade. He hired 
himself to his old master, Keimer, and proved himself very useful in 
engraving plates to print a new paper money which was then being used 
in the Colony. 

After a while Franklin bought a press and started a printing-house 
of his own. He had to go greatly in debt for 
it, but by very hard work he believed he could 
pay the debt. He used to get up in the mornings 
when other men were asleep and go to work, 
and he was in his office at night after others 
were in bed. If he had not been a very strong 
and robust man, this would have made him 
sick. Perhaps he stood it better because he 
lived on nothing but milk and bread and drank 
intoxicating drinks. He did everything 




4-^_ 



no 



OLD-STYLE PKINTING 
PKESS. 



about his printing office. He made a wise 

saying : " If you want a thing done well, do it yourself." So when he 
wanted paper, he took a wheelbarrow and went over to the paper house, 
bought it and wheeled it home himself. 

He soon started a little newspaper, and he had read so much that he 
was able to write, for himself, almost everything he printed in it. He also 
set a large portion of the type ; and for a long time worked his printing press 
with his own hands, for there were no steam presses in those days. 
People saw how industrious he was, and, as he was the best printer in 
Philadelphia, he soon had more work than he could do, working early 
and late. 

Now, I will tell you an interesting thing that happened. Tou remem- 
ber I told you about the girl who laughed at him, when he walked up 
the streets several years before, with his pockets stuffed full of socks and 



102 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

a shirt, eating a loaf of bread and carrying two others under his arms. 
Well, when Franklin was away in England, this pretty young lady, 
whom he always liked very much, got married, and when he came home 
he was sorry to hear it, for he had always hoped that he might become 
able to take a wife himself, and, if he should, she was the one he meant 
to ask to marry him. Some time after Franklin came home, the hus- 
band of his old-time sweetheart died. 

Franklin waited until she took off her mourning, and he had gotten 
himself well started in his own shop, then he went over and told her 
what he had always intended to do, and said if she was willing to marry 
him now, he believed he could make a good living for the two in his own 
business, but, of course, they would have to live poor at first. He also 
told her that he was thinking of starting a little bookstore in front of his 
printing office, and, if she would marry him, she could be his clerk in 
the bookstore. 

She readily consented, for she had always liked Franklin. So they 
were married and the young couple set to work to pay oflf the debts for 
the printing office. They had no servant and they lived on very plain 
food. Franklin still ate for his breakfast only plain bread and milk out 
of a plain earthen dish, with a pewter spoon. His wife attended the 
store, sold books and stationery, and, long before they expected to be so, 
they were out of debt and beginning to grow rich. 

If you had gone into the house in those days you would have found 
very few books, but in every home you would have found something 
which people read very little now-a-days, namely, an almanac. It told 
the people about the weather, the days of the month and the weeks, put 
in a lot of recipes for cooking and all sorts of household remedies. In 
addition to this, it had wise sayings and choice bits of reading. So you 
see the almanac was a calendar, a cook book, a doctor book and a read- 
ing book. Franklin concluded to print an almanac. He called it " Poor 
Richard's Almanac," and it is noted to-day for its wise sayings. Frank- 
lin signed the wise sayings, " Richard Siwnckrs,^' and that is why it is 
called "Poor Richard's Almanac;" but everybody knew Benjamin 
Franklin wrote it. 

By this time Franklin was one of the most learned men in the Colony, 
for, although he had never been to school since he was ten years old, he 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 103 

hafl, by studying at odd times, learned to speak and write several lan- 
guages. One of the great needs of the people, he said, was an oppor- 
tunity to read good books. There were very few books in the country 
and they were mostly in the libraries of rich people in their homes. So 
Franklin started a public library in Philadelphia. It was the first one 
started in this country, and he encouraged all the working people to 
spend their evenings and holidays at the library reading. 

About this time there was a great deal of talk about a strange in- 
fluence called electricity and wise men of Europe wrote much about it. 
Franklin read everything they wrote. Nobody knew what it was. Some 
of the wise men from the Old World came over to Philadelphia and 
lectured, and Franklin told them he believed that electricity was noth- 
ing more than the same power which caused the 'lightning and the 
thunder in the skies. They laughed at him of course, so he determined 
to try and find out if it was not the same. How do you suppose he did 
it ? I will tell you. 

Franklin noticed that the electricity in the batteries or machines 
which these men used, if applied to a hemp string, would make the 
short ends of the hemp stand up straight like the hair on a cat's tail 
when the cat is mad or excited. He also noticed when he touched the 
battery, he felt a shock from the electricity. "Now," he said, "if the 
lightning in the clouds is electricity, it will also make the ends of the 
hemp string stand up, and if I could only get it to come to me, through 
a piece of metal, I could feel the shock as I did from the electric bat- 
tery." 

The serious question was how he could get the hemp string up to the 
clouds. After a while he remembered that when he was a boy, he had 
often made a kite fly up as high as the clouds. So he took a silk hand- 
kerchief, made himself a kite and tied a long hemp string to it and put 
a steel point at the end of the kite, for he had found out that steel would 
attract electricity. On the other end of the hemp string, down close to 
his hand, he tied a metal key, and then from the key he tied a silk string 
which he held in his hand. They had found that electricity would not 
go through a silk string, and he reasoned that, if there was electricity in 
the clouds, it would be caught on the metal point of the kite and pass 



104 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

down the hemp string to the metal key, but would not pass down the 
silk string to his hand. 

He was afraid if he should fly his kite in the daytime a great crowd 
would gather around him, and, if his experiment should not prove 
successful, they would laugh at him ; so one night when there was a 
wind and a thunderstorm, he went out all alone and sent his kite up. 
When it was way up above the clouds, and the thunder was pealing and 
the lightning was flashing, he saw the hemp on his string stand up on 
ends. Tlien he reached his finger to the key and received a shock just 
as he felt it in the electric battery. He had iproved that lightning ivas 
electricity, and he had learned how to catch it. 

The learned men of the Old World were astonished that a man who 
had never been to scliool since he was ten years of age had beaten them 
all so far in this mysterious and strange discovery. They said he was a 
philosoi)her, and called him "Doctor Franklin." Many people, however, 
only laughed at the discovery. Some of Franklin's friends said to him : 
"Xow that you have discovered it, of what use is it?" Franklin 
answered scornfully : "Of what use is a child ? It may become a man." 
He meant to teach them that a discovery of any truth was a very impor- 
tant matter, and that all knowledge may be turned to good use. 

Franklin then set to work and invented the liglitning rod, which is, as 
we have said, a steel j^oint on the house which catches the lightning and 
runs it down a metal rod into the ground, saving the house from destruc- 
tion, just as the steel point on Franklin's kite caught the electricity from 
the clouds and ran it down the hemp string. 

Franklin was now a great man and the Americans were very proud 
of him. So they sent him on a journey to London in the interest of the 
people. Dr. Franklin was now reminded of a proverb of Solomon which 
his father used to repeat when he was a boy : " Seest thou a man 
diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings." He was now 
going to stand before the " Privy Council " of the King of England ; and 
what do you suppose he was going for? I vrill tell you. 

^lien Pennsylvania was settled, William Penn was made the Governor, 
and a large amount of land was given him by the King for his faithful 
services. When William Penn died, his sons inherited this large amount 
of land, and they claimed that they should not pay any taxes on it, and 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 105 

refused to do so. The people thought they ought to pay like others, and 
so did Franklin, hence he was sent to London to plead the cause of the 
people against the sons of William Penn. The result was the King 
made them pay taxes like everybody else, and Franklin came home 
more honored than ever. He had stood before the King and gained a 
great cause for the people. 

Seven years after this the English people undertook a very gi-eat 
injustice to the American Colonies. Always before this, when the King 
wanted money from the colonists, he had asked for it by his Privy 
Council and they had sent it freely. During the French and Indian 
War against England, the colonists had given so freely that the King 
said they had sent too much, and he made England pay back two 
hundred thousand dollars a year for several years. Now in 1763 there 
was a man by the name of George Grenville made Prime Minister of 
England, and he was Lord of the Treasury. Without asking the King 
he decided to tax the Colonies in America, and to do it he had stamps 
made which he said should be put on all boxes of tea and everytliing 
they bought, and the people who bought it would have to pay for these 
stamps. 

The people said they would give money when the King wanted it and 
asked for it, as they had always done ; but as they had no represen- 
tative in Parliament to plead for them, and as Parliament never had 
taxed them, they would not now submit to being taxed in this way. 

So the colonists from all over the country sent Dr. Franklin to Eng- 
land again, and he showed them how unjust it would be to make his 
country buy these stamps. He told them that the jieople of America 
would give money when the King asked for it. He showed them how 
liberal they had always been in giving more than was required. He told 
them the stamps on the goods would look like compulsion, and, while 
they could persuade the American people to do anything, they were too 
liberty-loving to be forced to do an unjust thing. 

But Mr. Grenville persuaded Parliament to pass the law called the 
" Stamp Act," and the stamps were put on all the goods that came to 
America. That meant the people of America had to pay England for 
the privilege of buying goods. This made the Americans very angry and 
they would not buy the goods. But a few people did buy them, and that 



106 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



made the true patriots very angry. So one day when a ship loaded with \ 
tea came into Boston harbor, with the hated stamps on the boxes, the 
people went aboard and threw it into the sea. 




INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 



A few months later the mean Mr. Grenville was re^fnoved from the 
office of Prime Minister, and, through Dr. Franklin's influence. Parlia- 
ment repealed the unjust "Stamp Act." Dr. Franklin was very popular 
in England. His learning and wisdom were so great that Oxford Uni- 



BENJAillN FRANKLIN. 107 

versity gave him a degree LL.D., and other universities gave him degrees 
of honor. 

But, in spite of Dr. Franklin's efforts and popularity, other unjust laws 
were made and kept in force, and the quarrel already started grew worse 
and worse. The people saw England had no love for them, and was only 
holding them to help support the English King and rich people. This 
made them hate the mother country. Patrick Henry, the fiery orator, 
had made a great speech in Virginia, and urged the colonists to go to 
war rather than submit. This speech had been printed and gone all 
over the country, and fired the people against their oppressors. Mean- 
time, England sent warships to America to fi'ighten the people into sub- 
mission. So Dr. Franklin after ten years' hard work to keep peace left 
England in April, 1775. When he landed on May 6th, he found that 
the battle of Lexington had been fought, and the war was really begun. 

As soon as he reached Philadelphia, he again tried to do what he could 
to bring about peace, for he feared our small nation of about three millions 
of people — not so many in all the country as there are now in the city 
of greater J^ew York — would be almost destroyed if they tried to fight 
against the great kingdom of England with her many trained soldiers 
and great warships. 

But finding that England would not do right, he determined with 
Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and other great men that 
it was better to die as a freeman than to live in such slavery as England 
wanted to put upon us. He was elected a delegate to the Continental 
Congress, where the greatest men came from all the Colonies ; and he 
helped make, and signed, the Declaration of Independence. 

He next went to work to get up soldiers — but he was a statesmen 
instead of a soldier, and General Washington asked him to go to Canada 
and see if the Colonies there would not join us in our war, and make 
England set them free also. Franklin went and tried hard to induce 
them, but finally had to give it up and come home. He was made Post- 
master General of the United Colonies ; that is, he had general charge 
of all the mail. 

When the war had been going on two years, everybody saw we must 
have hel]i, or we should be beaten, our country would be ruined, and all 
our great men would be hung or shot as traitors to the English Govern- 



108 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

mcnt. France had been secretly helping us for some time, for they 
hated the English, but they would not come out boldly, for they were 
afraid of getting into a great war with England themselves. 

The colonists knowing that Dr. Franklin could speak French, having 
learned it by studying at odd times while a young man, and also that 
he was the wisest and most popular man in the country, decided to send 
him to the court of France to beg them to help us. 

Thus Franklin again stood before a king. He was now a venerable 
man seventy years of ago, but full of vigor and full of life and one of 
the shrewdest men who ever went abroad for his country. The people 
of Paris— tlie gayest city and the proudest court of the world — were 
charmed with his wise sayings, his simple ways and his quaint manners, 
for he pretended to be only a poor colonist, although he was famous all 
over Euro|)e for his wise statesmanship, his learning in books, his dis- 
coveries and inventions. 

Franklin made himself very friendly, accommodating and pleasant; 
for while his heart was almost bleeding for his suffering countrymen, 
and he wanted France to send aid (piickly, he knew he must go about it 
in a very shrewd way and make them like him so much they could not 
refuse him. This teaches us a lesson. If we want people to help us, we 
must make them like us. It also reminds us of another wise saying: 
" Vinegar never catches flies." 

So Franklin went into their society. He talked with their learned 
men about science and })hilosophy and everything they wanted to discuss. 
One day he found a lot of scientific men talking very excitedly. He 
listened, and fi^md out they were trying to answei', by science, why it 
w\as that a dead fish if dropped into a bucketful of water would cause 
it to run over, l)ut if a live fish of the same size were put into the bucket 
it would not run over. Many reasons were given by the learned French 
doctors, differing so much that they got into quite a war of words. 
Presently someone said, "Mr. Franklin, we have not heard your ex- 
planation yet." 

With a smile Franklin asked them to bring in a bucket of water 
and two fisli the same size. This was done. " Kill one of the fish," 
said Franklin. This was done, and Franklin put it in the water and it 
ran over just as the wise men had said. "Now," said Franklin, "fill up 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



109 



the bucket level full again." This was done and he dropped in the live 
fish. It " scooted " around and more water ran over than the dead fish 
displaced. " There," said Franklin, "before wasting time in argument, be 

sure of your facts." 
This is another 
one of his wise say- 
ings, and to this 
day it is a maxim 
in France, where 
Fianklin is almost 
as popular as in his 
native land. 

Fianklin soon 
won over the 
Fiench people to 
the American side. 
T hey wanted to 
help us, but it was 
very much then as 
with our people who 
want to help the 
Cubans in their 
struggle for freedom 
from Spain's tyr- 
anny. The govern- 
ment did not want 
to do anything for 
their fear of Eng- 
land. 

But after about 
a year of sleepless 
nights and thoughtful days, Franklin won the government over too. It 
was a glorious day for him, when the treaty was made and sixteen big 
warships and four thousand French soldiers sailed out from France to 
help us fight. 

Besides this, Franklin could now buy more vessels, and as you read in 




DE. BENJAMIN PBANKLIN AS MINISTEK TO FEAWCE. 



no BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the life of Paul Jones, in this book, he fitted him out with ships after 
the loss of his own vessel. Do you not remember the fearful fight between 
the " Bon Homme Richard " and the "Serapis?" The " Bon Homme 
Richard " was Paul Jones' ship, and it was gotten for him in France with 
Franklin's aid. "Bon Homme Richard" is French, and it means ^Ae 
good man Richard. It was so named in honor of Franklin's "Poor 
Richard's Almanac," which Jones read and found full of good advice. It 
is believed that this treaty with France and the aid the French people 
gave us are what saved our country from defeat. If so, is not Franklin 
almost or quite as great as George Washington ? 

Dr. Franklin remained in France during the whole of the war and 
kept them sending us help, and when General Cornwallis surrendered to 
General Washington he helped to make the treat}^ of peace with England, 
signing them both — for there was first a treaty and afterwards a final 
one — in Paris. He then made a treaty with Prussia which greatly 
helped our country. 

After all these great deeds and many smaller ones, which it would fill 
a book to tell, he prepared to leave P^rance, where he had been for more 
than ten years. He was over eighty years of age and beginning to 
suffer with gout. So the Queen of France had him carried to the sea in 
her private easy chair, hung with silk curtains and lined with fine 
cushions and borne by two mules, one walking in front and the other 
behind. 

When Doctor Franklin reached home, everybody, from the highest to 
the lowest, joined in his praises and all those near enough went to see 
him. He was, next to Washington, the most honored man in the coun- 
try. But would you not think they would let the dear old man rest the 
balance of his life ? Certainly, if he so desired, but they thought he 
ought to be the President of Pennsylvania for them, anyhow^ for a while, 
and he served them in that oflice three years. 

Then all the free Colonies sent their great men together to name the 
new country and make a Constitution for it. Franklin was among them, 
and he told them that God had given the victory and they must open the 
meeting every day with prayer, because, he said : " If a sparrow cannot 
fall to the ground without His notice, an empire cannot rise up without 
His aid." So they did as he advised. The new countiy was named the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



Ill 



United States of America, and its Constitution, declaring all men to be 
bom free and equal, was made and adopted. 

George Washington was made President in 1789, and Franklin said 
it was the proudest day of his life when he saw him in office and this 
great country free, united, and under its own ruler. 

He had now but a short time to live, and though eighty-three years 
of age, he said he thought he ought to advise our people to free the negro 
slaves. Our Constitution said all men were born free and equal, and if 
that were true we should not keep our fellow-man in slavery. So he 
became president of a society which undertook to persuade Congress to 
free the negroes, and signed a long 
letter called a memorial, begging 
Congress to buy the slaves from their 
owners and set all the black people 
free. 

On the seventeenth day of April, 
1790, Benjamin Franklin died in 
Philadelphia, at the ripe old age of 
eighty-four years and three months. 
All the nation went into mourning 
for the good and great man. He 
was buried beside his wife Deborah, 
who had already been dead for 
many years, in a graveyard on the 
corner of Fifth and Arch Streets. If 
you should go to the great city of 
Philadelphia any time, you will, of 
course, want to see Independence Hall and Carpenters' Hall ; and then 
don't fail to go and see Franklin's grave. It is right in the corner, and 
you can look through the iron fence and see his and his wife's names on 
the flat top of the marble slab that covers them. One of their children 
and Mr. Kead, Mrs. Franklin's father, are buried by them. 




FRANKLIN S GBAVE, 
Corner Fifth and Arch Sts., Philadelphia. 



Patrick Henry, 

The Poor Boy Who Became a Lawyer and the Famous Orator 

of the Revolution. 




E 



I VERY boy and girl loves to hear a great 
speaker, and almost everyone has 
heard of the wonderful orator who stirred up 
the people and made them resist the tyrant 
King of England, who made our forefathers 
l)ay unjust taxes and kept us from being a 
free and independent people. 

His name was Patrick Henry. Like al- 
most all other great men, he has an interest- 
ing life. He made himself what he was. 
After failing in several other undertakings, 
he finally entered the calling to which he 
was exactly suited and became famous. 
His life will teach my girl and boy readers not to despair if they fail 
once or twice, but to keep on trying. There is some line of work or some 
profession in which every boy and girl can succeed, if they will only do 
as Patrick Henry did, find out just what they can do best; and, once 
they have undertaken it, stick to it and work with all their might. 

Like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and many of the great 
men in the early history of our country, Patrick Henry was born and 
raised in Virginia. His father was named John Henry, and came to this 
country, when a boy, from Scotland, about the year 1730, to seek his 
fortune in the New World. He got acquainted with the Governor's 

(112) 



PATHICK HENKY. 



PATRICK HENRY. 113 

family, and the Governor introduced him to a Colonel Syme, who com- 
manded the soldiers in Virginia. John Henry became a great friend of 
Colonel Syme and his wife. Mr. Henry also had a good education, and he 
was very useful to the Governor in the Colony. After a while he wrote 
back to his brother Patrick, in Scotland, who was a minister of the 
Church of England, and invited him to come to this country. Soon the 
Rev. Patrick Henry arrived. He was a smart man and quite an orator, 
and was made the preacher of St. Paul's Parish in Hanover, Virginia. 
It was for this good man that Patrick Henry, our great orator, was after- 
wards named. 

Colonel Syme, who commanded the Virginia soldiers, died, and his 
good friend, John Henry, was made colonel in his stead. After a little 
while he married Mrs. Syme, the widow of his former friend, and they 
had two sons; the older one they named "William, after the brother of 
Mrs. Henry, and the younger boy was named Patrick, after his father's 
brother whom we have just told you about. 

The two boys, William and Patrick, gi-ew up together, and until Patrick 
was ten years old, he and his biothcr William went to school in the 
neighborhood, where they learned to read and write and studied arith- 
metic. About this time their father oi)ened a grammar school in his 
own house, and the boys attended this school, where they studied Latin 
and also a little Greek. Patrick was, however, more fond of arithmetic 
and algebra and geometry. In fact, he disliked to study anything else, 
and if we must tell you the plain truth — he was very lazy about studying 
anything, and got out of all the lessons he could without telling stories 
or being dishonorable. Like George Washington, he always told the 
truth, and is said never to have done a dishonorable thing in his life. 

But when it came to play, Patrick was different. He loved to })lay 
ball, to go swimming and to go hunting. So fond was he of the woods 
that sometimes when the school hour arrived Patrick was far away in 
the forest with his gun and his dog, or along the banks of the brook with 
his angle-rod, though it is said he seldom brought home any fish. When 
school was out, as soon as he got his breakfast in the morning, he was 
away to the woods, where he would spend whole days together, for weeks 
at a time, seeming to grow moi-e fond of the deep and lonely stillness 
of the vast forest, which covered almost the entire countrv at that time. 



114 PATRICK HENRY. 

lie i)referred rather to go alone than with the other boys and join in 
the jolly fox-chase or a I'abbit hunt, as boys do now and as boys did 
then. It is true that he often started off with them, but after a little 
while they would find out that Patiick was not among them. Some- 
times they would follow him, and they would nearly always find him 
lying alone by some rippling brook, where he seemed to be delighted 
with the music of the waters, or he would be flat on his back looking up 
into the blue sky. 

They naturally thought that he Avas too lazy to run about with them, 
but often when they slipped up on him, they would hear words in 
measured tones of oratory coming from his lips. He always seemed 
much ashamed when they caught him " talking to himself," as they 
called it, and he was too modest to tell them what he really was doing. 
It was found out in later life that he was thinking of the beauties of 
nature, studying about the strange things in the woods and the streams 
and the sky, and nuiking to himself pretty speeches about them or about 
people. 

Thus we see, in early life, how his mind was inclined, and how he was 
naturally training himself. There were at that time a great many deer 
in Virginia, and it was sport to hunt them with dogs. One part of the 
men and boys who went out to hunt would go on what they called the 
"drive;" that is, they would take the dogs and go into a part of the 
forest and march straight through. If the dogs "jumped" a deer, it 
would run off in the other direction. The hunters followed, the dogs 
barking and the men hallooing with all their might, and the poor 
frightened deer would speed away in the other direction, as fast as its 
nimble legs would carry it. The other part of the men were called the 
" standers." They would go a mile or two ahead of where they expected 
to start the deer, and stand in the little forest paths along which the 
aninuils i^assed to and fro in the forest. When the frightened deer came 
bounding along the pathway, the "standers" would shoot it down. 

AYlien the deer was killed, the lucky hunter would blow his horn with 
all his might, and all the hunters would come together, and they would 
have a great jubilee. They had a fashion, when a young man first killed 
a deer, to take the blood of the animal and literally smear him all over 
with it, and it is said that Patrick, although he was a constant hunter. 



PATRICK HENRY. 115 

was a good deal larger and older boy when he got his first smearing than 

a majority of his companions in the r~"'^^ 

neighborhoods 

Patrick Henry was very fond of 
deer-hunting, but he never went on 
the "drive." He always took one 
of the "stands," and w;is not ;it 





cast. 



all choice about which stand they 
gave him, for it seems he would 
much rather remain alone with 
his thoughts than to be the heroic 
hunter who should bring down 
the deer. In fact, he frequently 
ftiiled to answer the call of the 
lucky hunter who bagged the 
game, and was absent at the 
, * jollification around the slain 

- animal. This was a breach of 

politeness on the part of the 
hunter which his companions 
were very slow to forgive. 
We must not conclude, however, that Patrick did 
not like society. On the contrary, he was very 
ibnd of it, but his enjoyments were of a peculiar 
He did not mix in the wild and mirthful scenes, but usually 



PATRICK HENEY 
SHOOTING A DEER 



116 



PATRICK HENRY. 



sat quiet, taking little part in the convei'sation, seldom, it is said, even 
smiling or telling a joke. He seemed lost most of the time in his 
thoughts. For this reason, people used to think he did not know 
what was going on; Lut they found 
out their mistake when they asked 
him about it, for he was able to re- 
peat every word of the conv 
better than any of the 
do it. 

Patrick was very 
fond of music and /^ 
he learned to play rff'^ 




"OFTEN AT THE COUNTRY PARTIES, HE FLAYED THE FIDDLE FOR MANY A JOLLY 
'OLD VIRGINIA REEL."' 



on the flute and violin, and often, at the country parties, he played the 
fiddle for many a jolly "old Virginia reel," which was the most popular 
dance in those days. He frequently joined in the dance, and, while 



PATRICK HENRY. 117 

he appeared to enjoy it immensely, it was said that he was very awkward 
and danced all over rather than with his feet. It was funny to see his 
long lanky arms and his big shoulders flying and shrugging about, while 
his feet seemed so heavy that he could scarcely get them off the floor. 

Patrick's school-days ended when he was fifteen years of age. By that 
time there were so many brothers and sisters in the family that the 
father was scarcely able to support them ; so he had to let the two older 
boys leave school. Patrick was placed behind the counter of a country 
store, where he stayed for one year as a clerk. His father then thought 
Patrick and William ought to be able to run a store for themselves, so he 
bought them a stock of goods, and in a country store " set them up in 
trade," as it was then called. 

Patrick was the manager of the store, because he had a year's experi- 
ence, and William, though older, must be his clerk, at least until he could 
learn all the mysteries of storekeeping from the younger brother. But 
the boys thought that keeping store wasn't work, but only play, and all 
they needed to do was merely to wait on the customers and give them 
what they called for. Furthermore, they thought everybody was per- 
fectly honest, and so they were, generally, but often people who do not 
have the money buy more things than they can pay for. So Patrick 
and William trusted everybody and about one-half of the time forgot to 
charge the things they sold on credit, and, at the end of the year when 
their father came to see how much money they had made, lo ! he was 
surprised to behold that they had sold almost everything in their store, and 
that they had very little money, and what they had charged up to the 
neighbors, if all collected, would not leave one-half so much as he had 
started the boys in business with at the beginning. 

Thus Patrick Henry and his brother had proved great failures as 
merchants, and they had to hunt work with the farmers, or get to be 
clerks in other stores where they would have nothing to do with the 
management. But while the money had been wasted, Patrick's time 
had not been wasted. His store was one of the most popular places in 
the neighborhood. People used to go there to talk and gossip with the 
" Henry boys," as they called them. No other place was so entertaining, 
or such a jolly good place to go. Every Saturday afternoon and almost 
every night found quite a throng of men and boys seated before the store- 



118 PATRICK HENRY. 

door in the summertime, or on goods boxes around the store in the 
winter, in animated conversation. 

No matter wliere else they might go, they never talked like they did 
in the " Henry boys' " store ; the reason of it was this : Patrick Henry, 
while he did little talking himself, every time he could get a crowd 
together began to ask somebody questions about some matter of history 
or something of comuion interest. He would carry his questions from 
one to another, around the company, until he would get them into a 
lively debate which often ended in quarrels and sometimes in a fist-fight, 
for they were great fighters in those days. 

But no matter what they were doing, whether engaged in heated 
discussion or pommeling each other with their fists, Patrick was watch- 
ing them and studying hmnan nature. You remember that he formerly 
studied the woods, the birds, the brooks and the things he found in the 
forest. He was now studying men, and how they might be moved to 
good or bad deeds by speech. Perhaps he had no thought of ever 
becoming a great orator. He studied human nature because he loved to 
be doing it, and he thus gained a knowledge of men which afterwards 
enabled him to control them so powerfully with his wonderful eloquence. 

During this period at the store, Patrick also began to read books of 
history. He particularly loved to study the lives of the grand old Greek 
and Koman heroes. He read all the orations of that wonderful orator, De- 
mosthenes, who lived in the city of Athens more than three hundred years 
before Christ, and wiio used to make such fiery orations against Philip, 
who was oppressing his countrymen, so that the people of Athens would 
rise up and shout in their frenzy, "Let us march against Philip." He 
read also the beautiful speeches of Cicero, the silver-tongued orator of 
the Romans, whose voice was so melodious, words so well chosen and 
sentences so beautifully put together that it was like listening to sw^eet 
enchanted music to hear him speak. 

Frequently, when customers came into the store, they heard Patrick 
in the back room, repeating some of these master orations, and they 
used to pause in the doorway before asking for the goods they wanted, 
and listen for a few moments to the beautiful expression he gave them. 
Thus it will be seen hoAv he pre}~)ared himself to speak as forcibly as 
Demosthenes, yet as musically and beautifully as Cicero. Let not any of 



PATRICK HENRY. 119 

my younc readers think this time was wasted. Not so ; it was very 
protitably spent. It is not what we learn in school so much as the 
private training we give ourselves which makes us great in any cause. 

We hav3 spoken above of Patrick Henry's playing the violin and 
flute at the country parties. Like all true-hearted and manly boys, he 
liked the girls, and was fonder of being with them than in the society of 
the men, for he was always pure-minded and never given to telling 
vulgar stones, nor did he enjoy listening to them from others. At one 
of the parties he attended, when he was about seventeen years of age, 
he met and fell in love with a farmer's daughter, and when he was only 
eighteen years old did a very foolish thing which we would not advise 
any of our young readers to imitate. What did he do, did you ask? 
Why, at this early age he got married, without any money himself, and 
his wife's father was so poor he could not help her. What do you think 
of an eighteen-year-old boy with a wife ? 

But before we blame Patrick Henry too much, Ave must remember that 
in those days people got married earlier than they do now. In the 
South many of the young men marry at the age of eighteen or nineteen 
years, and the girls from fifteen to seventeen. If we go into some of the 
far south countries, like Mexico, we find them marrying even younger. 
So while Patrick Henry was, as we think, a very young groom, he was 
not in that day entirely out of fashion. 

One day soon after the Avedding, Mr. John Henry and Mr. Shelton — 
that was the name of Patrick's wife's father — met, and, between them, 
gave the young people enough land to make them a small farm. They 
built them a little house, and the young husband went to work with a 
will digging in the earth to support himself and his new wife. Their 
little cottage consisted of two rooms; one in which they cooked and ate, and 
the other was their sleeping-room, their sitting-room, their parlor and 
their spare-room, so that when any of their friends came to see them 
and stayed all night, as they frequently did, Patrick and his Avife gave 
up the bed to the visitors and made for themselves a pallet in a corner. 
This, you must remember, Avas not as poor a home as Abraham Lincoln 
had when he was a boy; but a poorer one than he had Avhen he started 
his married life. 

Many a day you might have seen Patrick, then a young husband not 



120 



PATRICK HENRY. 



yet nineteen years of age, plowing among the stumps in his "new 
gi-ound," as he called it, cleared up in front of his cabin, with his happy 
girl-wife busy inside the house, or feeding the cliickens about the door. 




'MANY A DAY YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN PATRICK PLO'W- 
ING AMONG THE STUMPS IN HIS 'NEW GHOUND.'" 



It was too 
bad that the 
first year the crop on 
Patrick's farm was a 
failure. He did not 
make enough to keep 
them alive and in the 
poorest kind of clothes. He proved himself to be as poor a farmer as he 
had been a merchant, for at the end of the year he came out in debt. 
He and his wife talked the matter over, and it was decided that they 
should get out of debt by selling their little farm and all they had, and 
he should take the remainder of the money and go again into business as 
a merchant. He no doubt flattered himself that he would be able to 



PATRICK HENRY. 121 

profit by his past experience and make a success. The farm was sold, 
and the store was opened. 

His old friends came again. He had no trouble to get customers, 
but he was too good-hearted to press anybody for money; and he occu- 
pied so much time in playing his violin and flute for the pleasure of 
those who came to his store to buy, and got up so many debates and his 
customers had such a good time generally, that at the end of two years 
he was worse off than before and had to give up his store. Thus, before 
he was more than twenty-three years of age, he had failed twice as a 
merchant, once as a farmer, and altogether in everything else he had 
attempted to do except to make people like him and to learn more about 
human nature and the way to control and influence men. In this he 
was wiser than anyone else about him. 

The little store being given up, he did such various jobs of work as he 
could get and thus earned a poor support for his family. He had by 
this time also become a great reader. During his idle hours, he studied 
geogi'aphy and history, learned all about the different countries, their 
rulers, and their manners and customs. He was said by everybody to 
be the best-read man in the community. 

Often he had to go hungry or eat the very poorest and coarsest of food, 
but he was always cheerful and never despondent. " No use of crossing 
the bridge before we get to it," he used to say to his wife. "There's a 
good time coming bye and bye" was another of his favorite expressions, 
though there was little ]U'ospcct at this time for any good times for 
Patrick Henry or his family. But it did come, as we shall see, and one 
of the best lessons which young people can learn from his life is that of 
cheerfulness and hopefulness. He was, also, always truthful and rigidly 
honest, as we have said before. He was, also, a man of very firm 
character. He could not be led into anything he thought was wrong, 
and he was a believer in God and a true Christian. Thus he was able to 
be cheerful and hopeful under troubles which would cause many men to 
despair. 

Up to this time he had never thought of becoming a lawyer, nor had 
any of his friends suggested it to him. He had not made a public 
speech, not even in a debating society, but he had read the history of 
the nations of the world ; he had studied oratory for his own 



122 PATRICK HENRY. 

pleasure, and it suddenly dawned upon him that he might make a 
lawyer. 

When Patrick Henry was twenty-four years old, he set to work to read 
law. For six weeks or two months he shut himself up with a few law 
books and then he went before the boaixl of examiners and asked them 
to see if he did not know enough to practice law. He told them how 
much he luid read, and they laughed at him ; but in talking with him 
they found that he knew so much about history and other tldngs that a 
lawyer needed to know, that two of them gave him their consent to 
practice. 

The other one of the examiners, Mr. Randolph, who was not present when 
the other two gave him their consent, was so shocked at Mr. Henry's 
personal appearance and poor clothes, when he came to see him, that 
he told him he was not fit to be a lawyer — that no man who looked like 
him could be a lawyer, and he would not examine him at all. This 
made Patrick angry, and he answered the learned man in such a uianner 
and gave him such a lecture on his duty that Mr. Randolph was greatly 
surprised, and he tried to punish Mr. Henry for it by getting him into 
an argument in which he meant to show him how ignorant and unfit he 
was ; but here Patrick Henry was at home, and he talked so smart and 
so well that the judge exclaimed : " Mr. Henry, I will never trust to ap- 
pearances again. If your industry be only half equal to your genius, 
you will become an honor to your profession;" and he signed Patrick 
Henry's license, though it is said young Henry was at this time so 
ignorant of the forms of practice that he could not make out a case or 
present it before the court. 

Like most young lawyers, he had to wait a good while before 
he had anything to do, and when it came it was rather by accident ; 
but it gave him an opportunity, and that opportunity made him 
famous. 

We will now tell you about his first law case and his first speech. 
Tliere was at that time in Virginia an established church like they 
had in England. It was called the Episcopal Church, and the ministers 
were hired by the Governor. Virginia was a great tobacco-raising coun- 
try, and they had a law that the farmers might pay their debts in 
tobacco. The sheriff and the judges of the court were paid so much a 



PATRICK HENRY. 123 

year in tobacco for their services, and the ministers also received a 
certain number of pounds of tobacco each year. 

That seems very funny to us now ; but you know there was once a 
time, in certain parts of the South, when they even used coon-skins for 
money. There are many cases where a man even paid for his license, 
when he wanted to get married, in coon-skins, and when the preacher 
" tied the knot," the young man, if he was generous and liberal, would 
always load the preacher up with coon-skins as payment for his services. 
This was not generally so, but it was often done in new countries where 
coons were plentiful and money was scarce. So in Virginia the farmer 
could pay his debts in tobacco at sixteen shillings a pound. But one 
year tobacco went up to fifty shillings a pound, therefore the farmers, 
who were in control, had a law made that they might pay their debts in 
money if they wanted to, instead of tobacco. 

This law was made to hold good for only ten months, and after that 
time they again paid in tobacco, the price of which had gone down as 
low or lower than it had been before. But a few years later there 
came another short crop in tobacco, and the price went up to fifty shil- 
lings again, so the farmers had another law made permitting them to 
pay in money, but they very cautiously made this law so that it would 
not run out ; but the ministers seemed not to have noticed it was so 
made and after the first year they wanted their pay in tobacco again, 
because it would bring them nearly double what they would get, if they 
were paid in money. 

This brought on quite a war between the people and the ministers, 
and they had a big suit in court. The farmers were very mad with the 
clergymen, and the clergymen were very mad with the farmers, each 
accusing the other of wanting to cheat them. The clergymen sent word 
to the King of England, and the King took their side, and said that the 
farmer's law should be " null and void," which means that it should not 
be enforced, that the clergymen should be paid in tobacco. The King 
was very wise in this, and, while it appeared that he only wanted to take 
the ministers' part, he was, in reality, planning to enrich himself; 
because, if the clergy could collect their debts from the people in 
tobacco, which was worth more than twice as much as the money 



124 PATRICK HENRY. 

they were entitled to, the King said he would also collect his taxes in 
tobacco. 

So you see how wise and yet how mean the King was in his decision. 
The people had the law on their side, and the clergymen wanted to 
collect twice what the people owed them, and the King said that they 
should do it. The clergymen made a great noise that the people were 
swindling them out of their just rights. They wanted tobacco, they did 
not want money. They argued that it was a shame and a disgrace to 
swindle the ministers in that way, and insisted that they were right, 
because the King himself said so. The people, on the other hand, said 
that the ministers and officers were employed for so nmch a year, and 
tliat they had no right to demand their tobacco, which they could sell 
for two or three times as many pounds of money as they had engaged to 
work for. 

Tliis looks entirely reasonable, and the people were right; but the 
clergymen and the officers and the King wanted the tobacco. You 
would think that it would have been better if the sheriff and the King 
and the judges had brought suit against the people to collect their 
claims in tobacco ; but you will see how cunning they were in having 
tlie ministers to do it instead of doing it themselves. All the people 
loved the ministers, and they would sympathize with tlieir cause 
perhaps, when they would not sympathize with the officere. Therefore, 
it was decided that the ministers should bring suit, and if they could 
make the people pay them in tobacco, then they would have to pay the 
officers and the King also in tobacco. 

A lawyer by the name of Lewis was to plead the cause of the people, 
and a Mr. Lyons was to plead the cause of the clergymen ; but when the 
King decided that the clergymen were right and the people were wrong, 
and that the law should not be obeyed, Mr. Lewis, the people's lawyer, 
told them they could not gain their cause against the King, and so he 
gave it up. 

There were very few lawyers then in the country, and they were nearly 
all in the employ of the King, so the people could find no one to plead 
their cause, and, as the last resort, they turned to Patrick Henry, a 
young lawyer of twenty-four years, who had never made a speech in his 
life. The place where the case was to be tried was at Hanover Court- 



PATRICK HENRY. 125 

house, and the judge who was to sit on the bench was Patrick Henry's 
own father, and among those who opposed the people was his own uncle 
for whom he was named, tlie Rev. Patrick Henry. Was this not an 
embarrassing situation for the young lawyer who had never made a 
speech ? 

The day came. It was one of those beautiful Indian summer days 
which comes in November in the South. Patrick Henry was early at 
the courthouse, and great throngs of people gathered in from all direc- 
tions. Never before in Hanover had there been so many farmers present 
on any court day. The decision of the case amounted to thousands of 
tlollars of loss or gain to them. The clergymen came from all over the 
State, which was then, you know, only a Colony — though much larger 
than it is now. There were twenty or more of the most learned clergy- 
men of the nation present. They had come to frown upon the young 
lawyer who was to plead against them and to scowl at the people, who, 
they })retended, were trying to rob them. 

Patrick Henry was nervous. It was his first case. He had never 
spoken in court, and he walked restlessly about among the farmers, 
speaking a word here and there to this or that one, with many of them 
pulling at his elbows, offering him advice. He could plainly see that 
they were afraid they had a very poor lawyer, and he felt, himself, that 
they had. Presently, he saw his learned and eloquent uncle, Rev. 
Patrick Henry, drive up in his carriage, and, before any of the clergymen 
could get to him, the young lawyer dashed up, grasped his uncle by the 
hand and pleaded with him to go away. The young lawyer said: "Sir, 
I have never spoken in my life, and your presence here will add to my 
embarrassment. My own father must sit on the bench, and that will be 
bad enough. Besides, there will be twenty clergymen to criticise me. 
All of this I can stand, but I am sure I could not have my own uncle, 
whose name I bear, sitting among them frowning upon me. For my 
sake I beg you to go away." 

The uncle replied in kindly but regretful tones: "Patrick, I am sur- 
prised to find you arrayed against the ministry, you are doing yourself 
great injustice and ruining your future prospects for usefulness." 

"That may be," said Patrick, "but I see no moral reason why I should 
not accept the case for the people, besides, in my own heart, I am firmly 



12a PATRICK HENRY. 

convinced that they are right, and with all due respect, sir, that you 
and the clergy are wi'ong. For my sake and the resi)ect that I bear you, 
will you not go away? I shall have to say some hard words against the 
clergy this day, and I would not speak them in your ears." 

There was a I'espectfulness in his tones that his uncle could but appre- 
ciate and an earnestness in his manner which he could not resist, so 
re-entering his carriage, he simply said : " For your sake, Patrick, I will 
be absent; though your cause is wrong, I have too much respect for your 
feelings to allow my presence to embarrass you." So saying, he di'ove 
away. 

The court was opened. The array before Patrick's eyes was almost 
fearful. The most learned men of the Colony, the severest critics in the 
New World, were against him, and the courthouse was crowded. On 
the outside, the windows were thronged with anxious faces looking in. 

Mr. Lyons made a short speech, simply explaining to the jury the fact 
that the King had decreed his side to be right. He pleaded that the 
clergy were the greatest benefactors of the Colony, that it was a shame 
to mistreat them, and that this law, if enforced, sim])ly robbed them of 
their just allowance. His closing was ehxpient and beautiful, and the 
ministers nodded their assent when he took his seat. He had presented 
their cause well. 

Now came the first trial of Patrick Henry's strength. No one had 
ever heard him speak, and everyone was curious. Even his opponents 
seemed to feel sorry for him. He rose and stood for a moment in an 
awkward manner, and, when he began, faltered much in his sjieech. The 
people hung their heads, and the ministers exchanged sly, smiling looks 
of derision at each other. His father, it is said, almost sunk behind the 
desk, he was so mortified and confused ; but these circumstances only 
lasted for a few moments. 

Patrick Henry's soul rose within him, his whole appearance changed, 
the fire of his eloquence was kindled, and he seemed to forget him- 
self; his figure stood erect, his bearing was lofty, and his face shone with 
a grandeur which no one had ever seen u}ion it before. His awkwai'd 
actions became graceful to behold ; his voice, no longer faltering, was 
charming and beautiful. Words seemed to crowd for utterance ; there 
was lightning in his eyes as he turned upon the clergymen that seemed 



PATRICK HENRY. 



127 



to rive them like a tliunderbolt. He literally made their Llood run cold 
and their hair rise on ends. All eyes were now fastened upon him. Men 
looked at each other with surprise, and then, held by the spell in his eyes, 
the majesty of his attitude and the power of his words, they could look 
away no more. The old father stood erect behind the desk, with tears of 
delight streaming down his cheeks. The jury seemed bewildered. 

No one can describe that speech, and it has never been printed. It 




A TYPICAL VIRGIKTIA COtTRTHOUSE IN THE DAYS OF PATRICK HENRY. 

M' as delivered under the impulse of the moment ; but it was declared by 
the clergymen themselves, against whom it was spoken, that no such 
speech, as they believed, had ever fallen from the lips of man, and, to 
this day, in Hanover, Virginia, the highest compliment that can be paid 
to a speaker is to say : " He is almost equal to Patrick Henry when he 
plead against the parsons." The clergymen had sued for heavy damages, 
but the jury, without scarcely leaving their seats, granted them only one 
penny. Mr. Lyons made a motion for a new trial ; that is, he tried to 



128 PATRICK HENRY. 

get liis case tried over, but the court refused to give them a new 
hearing. 

Was ever such a victory won by a new lawyer? It was the first 
speech Patrick Henry ever made, and it was undoubtedly one of the 
greatest speeches ever delivered in the world before a court. At its 
close the people, who had hung their heads in shame at the beginning, 
rushed into the courthouse, seized the young lawyer in spite of the 
slieriff's cry for order, hoisted him on their shoulders, carried him out of 
the house and over the town, with a wild multitude following and scream- 
ing his praises at the top of their voices. 

Patrick Henry had at last found the calling for which he was 
intended, and to which he was suited. From this time forward he was 
the greatest lawyei', not only in Hanover Courthouse, but of all Virginia. 
He had all the cases he could attend to, and made plenty of money to 
supi)ort his family, who had for many years been struggling with 
poverty. 

He lived lor nearly forty years after this memorable day at Hanover 
Courthouse. His life was full of honor and usefulness to liis country, 
and he has made several other speeches, parts of which almost every 
schoolboy has at one time or another used as a declamation. 

And now that we have told you of the hardshii)s and troubles of 
Patrick Henry's early life, let us tell you of the great things he did 
in the service of his country. 

In January, 1765, the famous "Stamp Act" (which we explained in 
the life of Benjamin Franklin) was passed by the British Parliament. 
The colonists were to be oppressed, and no one dared to openly rebel 
against it. 

In May, Patrick Henry was elected to the House of Burgesses (that is 
what the Virginia Legislature was called in those days), and he pledged 
himself to his people to do all he could to oppose it. There were many 
learned and eloquent speakers in the House and he was not exi^ected to 
take the lead. 

The fine gentlemen in the assembly, who lived in fine old Virginia 
mansions, and wore fine clothes, made fun of Patrick's country way of 
talking, his "homespun" clothes and his awkward manners; but when 
he spoke they could not help admiring his wonderful command of 



PATRICK HENRY. 



129 



language and his power over men. His fii'st speech was against rich 
men who wanted to lend the Colony's money to themselves and their 
friends. This made them his great enemies, but the other side — the 
common people — admired him more than ever. 

At last it came time to consider the hated " Stamp Act." None of 
the great men dared to speak against it openly. So Patrick Henry drew 
up some resolutions declaiing that the English Parliament had no right 
to make this tax upon the people, and, furthermoi'e, they had no right to 
make any laws against the interest 
of the Colonies. He said they were 
resi)onsible to the King alone, and 
that the House of Burgesses and 
the Governor alone had the right 
to make the colonists pay taxes. 

After the reading of his resolu- 
tions, Patrick Henry was assailed 
with a storm of words and much 
ridicule by those who favored or 
were afraid of England. There 
were hot speeches from several 
gentlemen, and a less heroic sj)irit 
than Henry's would have said not 
a word more. No one thought the 
resolutions would pass. 

At length when the storm had 
subsided, Patrick Henry arose to speak. His face was deathly pale, his 
thin lips quivered, but his eyes had a look of awful determination in them. 
Stretching his long arms at full length toward the President (called the 
Speaker) he began and delivered the greatest speech perhaps ever heard 
in America. The walls rang with the mighty force of his woi'ds, and 
everyone was overpowered with his wonderful eloquence, as they had 
been in the famous "Parson Case." They shouted "treason" at him, 
but he could not be frightened ; but all the time grew bolder and more 
eloquent. When he closed this great speech, every member but two 
voted for his resolutions. 

Patrick Henry had been the first one who dared oppose England. His 




AN OLD VIRGINIA MANSION, COMMON IN 
THE TIME OF PATRICK HENRY. 



130 PA THICK HENRY. 

wonderful speech was printed and sent all over the Colonies, north and 
S(juth, and it was even sent to England ; and in a few months Parlia- 
ment re^jealed (that is, removed) the hated '• Stamp Act." 

But the spirit of liberty was now awake in the people, and they 
demanded relief from other unjust laws which England tried to impose, 
and in this eflbrt Patrick Henry was one of the foremost men in the 
country. He was greater than all other men in Virginia, and he, with 
Thomas Jefferson and Eichard Henry Lee, kept telling the people they 
ought to be free. 

In 1773 — eight years after his great speech — Mr. Henry, Mr. Jefferson, 
Mr. Lee and many others got the House of Burgesses to elect men to 
write to the other Colonies about their grievances against England. 
This was a great benefit, for tlie difixjrent Colonies were thus brought 
together in their efforts and protests against cruel laws. Through this 
committee of correspondence, it was decided that the Colonies should 
hold a congress at Philadelphia in 177L Every Colony sent represent- 
atives. Mr. Henry was one of those from Virginia. 

Patrick Henry opened the Congress with a great speech, in which he 
said, "I am 7iot a Virginian, but an Amei'ican.'" Everybody soon saw he 
was the most powerful orator in Congress, and many said he was the 
greatest man in the nation, for he was as wise and just as he was 
eloquent. 

In March, 177o, Mr. Henry made another speech in the Virginia House 
of Burgesses, which is said to have been the gi'andcst effort in his life 
up to this time. He waiited the Colony to raise soldiers and pi'epare for 
war. Almost every schoolboy knows part of this speech. 

Pati'ick Henry then went to work and got u}) a company and made 
the Governor, who was but the servant of the King, give up the colonists' 
gunpowder, which he had taken away to the English sliips. This was 
the lirst resistance, by arms, to England in Virginia. He also made the 
Governor pay for the damage he did the people. 

Patrick Henry now went back to the Continental Congress, as they 
nuide him commander of all the Virginia soldiers ; but he was too good 
a statesman to spend his time in the war, and so his friends begged him 
to stay in the Virginia Legislature and Continental Congress, which 
he did. 



PATRICK HENRY. 



131 



In May, 1776, he got the Virginia Legislature to pass a vote request- 
ing the Continental Congress to declare our country free from England 
and to go to war with her, if she would not let us go. He then helped 
make a new Constitution for Virginia, and they elected him Governor of 
the Colony. Thus, 
in sixteen years 
after he began to 
study law, he was 
one of the most 
famous men in 
America and 
Governor of Vir- 
ginia. How do you 
suppose those 
proud people who 
laughed at him felt 
now ? 

The Revolution- 
ary War now be- 
gan in earnest, and 
it would take a big 
book to tell ho^^ 
he and John 
Adams and others, 
by their wise coun- 
sel and eloquent 
speeches, inspired 
the soldiers and 
helped General 
Washington to win 
in the end. Through 
it all Patrick Henry was in his State Legislature, or the General Congress, 
or serving as Governor. After the war was over, they made him 
Governor twice, and tried again, in 1786, to get him to serve them, but 
he declined, as he had already been Governor so much. He told them 
he did not think they ought to get in the habit of letting one man 




PATRICK HENRY MAKING HIS SPEECH BEFORE THE HOUSE 
OP BURGESSES. 



132 PATRICK HENRY. 

hold office too long. In this he was like George Washington. Tou 
know Washington would not let them make him Piesidcnt but twice. 
But the people loved Patrick Henry so much that they tried to make 
him Governor again ten years later, in 179G, but he told them no, he 
had been honored enough. 

President Geoi-ge Washington offered to nmke Mr. Heniy his Secretary 
of State in 1795. This is the very highest office in the nation, next to 
the President and Vice-President. Patrick Heniy said no, there were 
better men for it. Mr. Washington then wanted to a])point him Chief 
Justice of the United States, and President John Adams afterwards asked 
him to be our special minister to France, where, you I'cmember, Benjamin 
Franklin was so long our representative, but he said no to both of these, 
because he preferred to remain a i)rivate citizen and live with his i'amily 
— he now had many interesting children. 

Finally, in 1799, the Virginia Legislature passed a very bad law, 
which George Washington — who was now a piivate citizen again — 
thought was very dangerous and might cause trouble to the whole 
United States. So he begged Patrick Henry to offer himself as a candi- 
date for the Legislature, for he knew, with his ])owcrful eloquence, Mr. 
Henry could overcome the l)ad law. Mr. Ueniy was elected, of course, 
but before he took his scat he died, at lied Hill, Charlotte County, Vir- 
ginia, June 6, 1799, when only sixty-three years and a few days old. 

Patrick Henry was regarded by everyone as the greatest of American 
orators. Thomas JeflFerson and John Randolph declared he was the 
greatest orator who ever lived, and he was often compared to Demos- 
thenes and Cicero as the only speakers of ancient times worthy to be 
ranked with him. 

Patrick Henry's wife, Sarah Shelton, died some years before her 
noted husband, and he afterwards married the granddaughter of Gov- 
ernor Spottswood, of Virginia. Mr. Henry throughout his life was a 
devoted Christian, and left a spotless name for honesty and uprightness 
of character. 



A FLOATING PALACE 

FROM NF.W YORK TO BOSTON 




THE TRUE STORY OF 



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t CLEB'"" fultons first STE»«80A 



Robert 




Fulton, 



The Builder of the First 5uccess= 
ful Steamboat. 



FITCHS STEA.MBOAT 




D 



imm- 



readers 



any of my young 

tliink, when they go to take a 
boat-ride and are carried along, ahnost 
as fast as a bird would fly over the 
waters, in tlie great fast-moving 
steamboats, that it is not yet one hun- 
dred years since the first successful 
steamboat was floated on the water? 
Would you not like to know some- 
thing about the -man who made it? 

I shall be very glad to tell you this 
story, for he was one of our own coun- 
trymen, and we feel proud of him as we do of Franklin, who invented 

(133) 



DEVELOPMENT OF STEAM NAVIGATION 
FOLLOWING FULTON'S DISCOVERY. 



134 ROBERT FULTON. 

the lightning rod, and Morse, who invented the telegraph, and Bell, 
who made the telephone, and Edison, who invented the phonograph, 
and many other famous Americans who have discovered and made such 
wonderful things for the benefit of the world. We like to tell the great 
deeds they have done for the benefit of mankind. 

I shall have to commence by telling you again of a very poor boy. 
His name was Eobcrt Fulton. He was born in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania in 1765. His father was an Irishman who had moved to the New 
World, and he was a tailor ; that is, he made clothes for other people. I 
shall have to tell you the truth and say that Eobert was not Ibnd of 
books when he was a boy, but he liked to be always making things. 
He could make lead-pencils, and he could also make skyrockets for his 
and his friends' Fourth-of-July celebration. Everything that the boy 
looked at in the way of a machine, he wondered if he could not make it 
better. 

He was given but very little education, first because he did not like to 
study books, and second because his parents were so poor that he had 
to go to woik very young. They put him with a jeweler to learn the 
trade of watch-making; but he soon began to use his extra time in 
drawing pictures and painting. He also learned to make portraits of 
people which looked very much like them (you know they could not 
take photographs in those days), and he sold portraits and pictures of 
landscapes to get money, which he carefully put away. 

This boy also loved various kinds of sports. He was particularly fond 
of fishing, and he used to go out with the boys on an old flat-boat which 
they pushed along the river with a pole. This was very laborious work, 
so Robert showed them how to make two paddle wheels, one on each 
side of the boat, which they hung by cranks over the sides, and by 
turning the cranks, as a boy would turn a grindstone, the paddles went 
around in the water and pushed the boat along. This was great fun, 
and it set Robert thinking and wondering why such wheels might not 
be put on big boats, to push them when there was not wind enough for 
the sails. 

The one trouble about this was that such big wheels would be 
required they could not get men enough around the cranks to turn them 
in the water. Still Robert kept thinking about it, and after a while you 



ROBERT FULTON. 135 

will see how valuable this thought was to him. All this time Robert 
Fulton kept painting pictures and selling them. He wanted very much 
to be a great artist, like Benjamin West, who, he learned, had commenced 
in America ; but had now grown to be such a great artist that he was 
living in London, getting lots of money for his pictures. 

In the meantime, Robert's father died, and he was left to support his 
widowed mother. By the time he was twenty-one years of age he had 
earned enough money to buy a little farm for his mother so she could 
keep cows, have a garden, and raise chickens, turkeys and other fowls to 
sell. Then, with his mother's consent, he took the balance of his money 
and sailed away to Europe to study art. A large part of his time he 
spent with the famous artist, Benjamin West, in London, and became a 
good painter. 

But all the time his mind kept running on inventions, and he made a 
number of new machines. Among other things was a little boat which 
he could make run under water. He intended it to blow up war vessels, 
but somehow the people did not think it of any use. About this time 
he began to be interested in the steam engine, which was invented by 
James Watt, a young Scotchman, a good many years before. 

These engines had been used to work pumps and to do all sorts of 
things on the land, and one Englishman tried to make it run a boat. 
This Englishman's idea was to make the engine i)ush a thing, like a 
duck's foot, through the water. Just like the inventor of the flying 
machine now tries to use something like a bird's wing to fly with, so 
this inventor thought he must use something like the duck's foot to 
swim the boat along with. The engine worked the foot all I'ight, but it 
was not a success. 

Fulton began to study how he could make a steam engine run a boat. 
He heard of an American who tried to run a boat by forcing a stream 
of water through it, pumping it in the bow and pushing it out the stern 
with a steam engine. This was a pump-boat, and though it made the 
boat go, something about it was wrong, and it failed. Another man by 
the name of John Fitch had made a steamboat with paddles on the 
sides of it like ordinary oars. The engine was made to run the oars 
back and forth as the men did when they held them in their hands. 
This man was also an American and ran his boat on the Delaware River 



me ROBERT FULTON. 

in 1787. It made trips between Burlington, Xew Jersey, and Phila- 
delphia, a distance of twenty miles, but it moved so awkwardly, though 
it went pretty fast, that the people said it was no good, and poor John 
Fitch died broken-hearted. But before he died he told the people a 
steamboat would yet be built to please them, and then they would be 
ashamed for laughing at him. 

" Xow," said liobert Fulton, after he had studied all about these other 
boats, " why can I not take a steam engine and instead of making it Avoik 
a duck's foot, or i)ump in and out a stream of water, or woi-k oars like 
men, all of which liavebeen a failure, why can 1 not,'' he said to a friend, 
" make it run paddle wheels such as ' we boys ' used to use on the old 
flat-boat when we went fishing?" 

So Fulton thought over it many days, and at last he got up two plans. 
You know he was now a great artist. He had also studied engineering 
Avhile in Europe, and he had also studied navigation and written a book 
on the subject of I'unning boats on canals, which was then a matter of 
very great interest in Eui'ope. 

In 1797, when Fulton was thirty-two years old, he met Mr. Joel 
Barlow, the American Minister to the Court of France. Mr. Barlow found 
Fulton was a very sensible young man and in every way a fine fellow, so 
he invited him to go to Paris and live in his family as long as he wished. 
Fulton accepted this kind invitation and went to Paris, which he made 
his home for seven years. He continued to study and to make inven- 
tions of various kinds, all the while keeping his plans for the steamboat 
in mind. He also learned the French language, and, by reading good 
books, tried to make up for his lack of education. 

After a while his friend, Mr. Barlow, gave up the position of American 
Minister to France, and a Mr. Livingston was appointed in his place. 
Fulton soon made the acquaintance and gained the friendship of this 
excellent man and showed him his plans for a steamboat. Mr. Living- 
ston had already read much on the subject and was greatly interested in 
Fulton and his plans. One of these plans was to use paddles in a new 
way, and the other, as we have said, was to use the paddle wheels. 
They concluded that wheels would be the best, so Fulton built a small 
steamboat, which was tried on the River Seine in Paris. But the 
machinery was too heavy, and the boat broke in two in the middle. 



ROBERT FULTON. 



137 



This, of course, was a very great disappointment to Fulton and Mr. 
Livingston, but it did not sliow their plan was a failure ; but that they 
had not built their boat strong enough. So Fulton went to work and 
built another boat, and a great crowd of the gay people of Paris gathered 
on the banks of the river to see it move. The trip was a success, and all 
the people shouted as 
it moved oft" in the 
river; but it did not 
go as fast as they ex- 
pected, and in this re- 
spect they were disap- 
pointed. But Fulton 
said he knew what the 
trouble was, and the 
next time he would 
shape his boat difler- 
ently, and he was sure 
it would run fast 
enough. Mr. Living- 
ston was also satisfied 
that this could be 
done. 

These men were both 
Americans ; and, now 
that they were satis- 
fied their boat would 
be a success, they de- 
termined to leave Paris, 
come to America, and 
build another boat in 

order that the first successful trip of a steamboat in the world might be 
made in their own native land. This was great patiiotism, and they are 
entitled to our honor and respect for their loyalty to our country. 

So Fulton and his friend started for America. In the meantime Ful- 
ton liad made designs for a new steam engine to be constructed differently 
from any other, so it would exactly suit the purpose for which he desired 




BOBEKT FULTON. 



138 ROBERT FULTON. 

it in running his steamboat. So he and Mr. Livingston sent their plans 
to James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, who was then in the 
business of making steam engines for all sorts of purposes, and he built 
them just the kind of a machine that Fulton wanted to fui'nish the 
power for his new steamboat. 

While the engine was being built in England, Fulton and Mr. Living- 
ston were in New York building the boat. In this woik Fulton looked 
after eveiy detail. He was particularly careful to see that the shape of 
the boat was just right. In the first place, he wanted it strong in the 
middle, so it would not be broken in two by the weight of the machinery 
or the force of the waves. He built several little models, and, it is said, 
doated them in a bathtub. He put little sails on them and would blow 
his breath against the sails to see how the differently shaped boats 
would move. He found that those with the very thin, narrow bow and 
stern would get through the water much easier than those with a wide 
bow and stern. 

He therefore made his new boat with a narrow, sloj^ing bow, so that 
it would cut easily through the water. At last, when his boat was 
almost complete, the engine came and was placed in the boat where it 
could work the paddle wheels to the greatest advantage. He was also 
very careful in making the paddle Avheels to see that they were perfectly 
true and correct. Then he placed a mast near the front and another 
near the stern of his boat, and to these he had sails attached, so that 
if the wind should blow in the direction his boat should run he could 
hoist those sails and have the help of the wind in addition to the 
steam power. 

At last the boat was ready, the engine was in place, and Fulton looked 
it over carefully and said it was all he could desire. He decided to make 
a bold start by running from New York up to Albany, a trip which the 
sail-boats had been making regularly every day or two. Albany, you 
know, is the Capital of the State, while New York is the great business 
city, where most of the large merchants live. Therefore, there was every 
day or two a large number of passengers going back and forth between 
New Yoi'k and the beautiful city of Albany, which is about one hundred 
and fifty miles north of New York on the Hudson River, 

Mr. Livingston and Robert Fulton were very anxious to have as many 



ROBERT FULTON. 139 

well-known people as they possibly could get to go on their boat, so they 
advertised in the papers several days before that the "Clermont" — that 
was the name of Fulton's new boat — would make its trip from New 
York to Albany on a certain day, and all those who wanted to go might 
have a free ride. 

The newsi)apers printed a great deal about the boat, but they did not 
believe it would be a success. Many people ridiculed it so much that 
the people talked about it, not as the steamer " Clermont," but as 
''Fulton's Follyy Some of the wiser men said that it was all right to 
run a steam engine on a solid place on the ground, but if anyone should 
put it on a floating boat, which was continually swaying about, it would 
cause the steam engine to explode, and it Avould blow everything to 
pieces, and the people who were foolish enough to go' on it would, most 
likely, all be drowned. 

This was as unwise and poor an argument as was made by some of 
the philosophers in England when the first railroad train proposed to run 
twenty miles an hour. They said if the railroad train should go as fast 
as twenty miles an hour, the people could not get their breath, and they 
all would be dead when they came to the end of their journey. Even 
the doctors said this; so the people were very much afraid of the rail- 
road trains, until after it had been found that those who traveled twenty 
miles an hour were not dead or even sick from passing through the air 
so fast. 

The day for the boat to make its trial trip w^as Friday, August 11, 1807. 
Now, you know, some people are superstitious about Friday. They say 
that it is bad luck to move, or begin a new garment, or to start anything 
new on F'riday ; but Fulton did not belong to this ignorant, stupid class. 
He thought that Friday was just as good a day as any to make a trial. 
Even if it had been the thirteenth day of the month, it would have made 
no difference to him. He was not one of those silly people who would 
not sit down to the table with thirteen present any more than he thought 
Friday an unlucky day. 

On the morning of August 11th, Fulton went down to his boat very 
early. His engineer had been there all night, and had built a fire in the 
engine, and, when morning came, from the foot of Cortland Street, New 
York, the black smoke was seen puffing up from the large iron stack-pipe 



140 ROBERT FULTON. 

of tlie " Clermont." The whistle blew loud, and Fulton and Mr. Living- 
ston stood on the deck and smiled at the great crowd that gathered to 
look at " the loonderful smoking monster,''^ as some of the people called it. 
All the house-tops were tilled with people, as they are now when a great 
naval parade or something extraordinary happens on the river. 

Mr. Fulton and Mr. Livingston hoped to see some of the distinguished 
men of New York come down and get on their boat, but they were dis- 
appointed. It was all they could do to induce twelve people to accept 
their invitation, for everybody agreed that one could scarcely do a more 
risky thing than trust his life on that great " new-fangled " boat, as they 
called it, with a fire machine inside of it. No doubt there were young 
men and boys who would have been willing to risk their lives for the 
novelty of the trip, but their friends and parents would not let them. 

We think very strange of this now, but we must remember it was new 
then. Many })eople had never seen a steam engine of any kind and 
did not know anything about it ; and those who had seen one, as we 
told you, believed it would explode if put on a floating craft and 
shaken up and down, as it would be by the waves. 

At last, about one o'clock, long after the hour ai)pointed for starting, 
Fulton grew afraid the twelve people whom he had gotten on board 
would become so frightened by the crowd on the bank that they would 
get ofif the boat ; so without waiting for more, he started oflf. The boat 
moved beautifully, and all the people from the house-tops waved their 
handkerchiefs and shouted as it glided out like a great duck on the 
bosom of the North Eiver. The tide was running slightly against them, 
and the wind was also in the other direction ; hence, as they could not 
use their sails, they rolled them up tightly, and the people saw that the 
boat was traveling entirely by steam. The crowd was struck with 
wonder as they looked at the black smoke rushing from the pipes and 
the great paddle wheels revolving, thi-owing the spray into the air, and 
the boat speeding along without spreading her sails. 

If you look at a steamboat now, you will see that the paddle wheels 
on the side are covered by what they call the wheel-house ; but Fulton 
did not think of this, and he left his great paddle wheels out in the air 
where everybody could see them. 

As the boat went up the river, all the wharves, piers and house-tops, 



ROBERT FULTON. 



141 



and almost the whole water-front of the city, and the banks through the 
country, were thronged with the people. All along the route there was 
great excitement. Hats and handkerchiefs were waved and shouts 
and praises greeted the ears of the happy inventor, the captain, the crew 
and the passengers. The " Clermont " was successful. Navigation by 
steam was a reality. Robert Fulton became that day one of the greatest 
men of his country. 

Now, how long do you suppose it took them to get to Albany? If you 




WHAT YOU WOULD SEE TO-DAY AT A STEAMBOAT LANDING ON THE 
MISSISSIPPI HIVER. 



were to go to New York now, and take one of the magnificent steamers 
which are made entirely of steel, instead of wood, you would go to Albany 
in about ten hours. Of course, you don't expect that Fulton's boat ran 
as fast as one of these? He had no such powerful engines, and boat 
building was not then so perfect as it is now, and it took Fulton just 
three times as long as it takes one of our present great steamers to make 
the trip. The " Clermont " reached Albany in thirty-two hours from the 
time she left New York, but, as we said, she traveled against the wind 
and tide. In coming back she made the trip in thirty hours. That was 



142 ROBERT FULTON. 

vGiy much faster, liowever, than any other boat had ever traveled on the 
Hudson Kiver. 

After this, regular trips were made two or three times a week by the 
" Clermont " between Albany and New York, and Fulton had no lack of 
patronage. As soon as it was found out that there was no danger, 
nearly all the line people who traveled between the two cities paid a 
higher price to go by the steamer " Clermont," so Fulton and Mr. Liv- 
ingston made money very fast. 

They got so much patronage that the " Clermont " could not carry 
one-fourth of the people who wanted to travel on her, and under Mr. 
Fulton's direction, in a short time, many other boats were built and 
plying, not only between New York and Albany, but on all the great 
American rivers. Mi-. Fulton continued to labor to make more perfect 
machinery and to have his boats built in a better shape for fast running. 

I will tell you a story about the " Clermont's " first tilp up the Hud- 
son. It is said that as she was plowing along in the night, she met 
some sail-ships. The sailors had never heard of her or had not expected 
to meet her, and when they saw this creature of fire and smoke coming 
near them in the night, and heard her jniffing and steaming, and her 
luachinery ]ilanking and her wheels splasliing in the water, they were so 
frightened that they were almost crazy. Some of them fell on their knees 
and prayed ; othei's took to small boats, and some even jumped o\erboard 
on the other side and swam ashore. Others ran with all their might down 
into the hold of their vessel and covered themselves up in the bunks in 
the forecastle to escape the monster. This true story, jDcrhaps, was read 
by Mr. Samuel L. Clemens, our great American funny man, commonly 
called " Mark Twain," before he wrote the funny story of Uncle Dan'l, 
the old negro, who became so frightened when he saw a steamboat coming 
u}^ the ]\Iississi])pi River, that he fell on his knees and jjrayed I'or deliver- 
ance, thinking that the steamboat was either the Lord himself, or else it 
was " old Satan " coming to destroy him. 

Now that Fulton built and successfully ran steamboats, what do you 
suppose happened to him ? Why, the very same thing that hap])ens to 
every man or boy who shows that he knows something more than other 
people, or can do things that are useful to mankind. He became famous 
and got more woi'k to do building steamboats than he possibly could 



BOB Em FULION. 



143 



do. The United States Government employed him to act as engineer 
for them in the construction of steamboats, the building of canals and 
helping along navigation, which, you know, means travel by water. 

He alfeO made for the Government toipedoes, or war instruments, for 
blowing up vessels by exploding under the water. This, you know, he 
had invented and shown in Europe, but he did not then have any fame, 
and they did not think much of his invention. He was now able to 
improve them and get the Government to adopt them. All the great 




"CHICAGO," ONE OF THE "WHITE SQUADRON" WAESHIPS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

war vessels in the woi'ld now carry torpedoes to use in this way, and for 
the invention we are indebted to Robert Fulton. 

Our Government thought so much of Fulton and had so much confi- 
dence in his ability that Congress voted three hundred and twenty 
thousand (nearly one-half million) dollars to be used in building a 
steam warship under Fulton's direction. This act of the Government, 
showing how^ much they esteemed the great inventor, gave Fulton more 
pleasure, he said, than anything else that happened in his life. It took 



144 ROBERT FULTON. 

more than one year to build this great warship, and it was successfully 
launched in the sight of a multitude of people, and what do you suppose 
the Government named it? I have no doubt that you will guess aright, 
foi- the great ship bore on its bow the name ''Fulton the Fivsty 

This ship furnished the model for the great Swede, John Ericsson, who 
afterwards came to America and improved on Fulton's models, until we 
have the wonderful floating forts and terrible cruisers which now make 
up the war vessels of the great nations of the world. 

But Fulton not only knew about steamboats and steandioat machinery, 
he was a thorough mechanic and understood the most difficult inventions 
of all kinds of machinery, and this knowledge helped him to expose a 
rascally fellow who was once imposing a fraud upon the people. This is 
how it was: 

You have heard about perpetual motion, have you not? Well, that 
means something which, when once set in motion, will move on forever 
without any supj^ly of power from without to keep it going. Many men 
have spent the greater part of their lives trying to discover or invent 
some new way of pi'oducing perpetual motion. Some have grown so 
much interested in the subject that they have lost their minds. Others 
have been so disappointed, after spending years in trying to discover 
it, that they have killed themselves over tlieir disappointment. 

Well, in Fulton's time, there came a man to New York by the name 
of Redhelfer, who said he had invented a perpetual motion machine. 
Many people paid a dollar a jiicce to see the wonder; and even learned 
men visited it and could not account for its continual motion. They 
told Fulton about it. He said it must be a "humbug," because he 
knew that no machine could be made that would run of itself. However, 
his friends kept coaxing him until he went with them to see it. After 
looking at it in a careless way, as they had always done, Fulton sat 
down and began to study its motion. He noticed that its running was 
not regular. Sometimes it would go faster and sometimes slower. Then 
he became more convinced that it was a "humbug," and he put his ear 
closer up to the machine to listen. 

Presently he said: "This motion is made by some one turning a 
crank," for he had noticed, when he was a boy, in turning a grindstone, 
that the stone, when pushing the crank down and when pulling it up. 



ROBERT FULTON. 145 

moved with a different rapidity. Hence, he concluded there must be 
someone turning a crank somewhere, and he said: "If you people will 
help me, I will prove to you tliat what I say is true." 

The people agreed, and, at once, they set to work to pull off some 
strips of wood, when tliey saw a string running from the machine 
back through the wall and passing up through the floor above. 
They quickly ran upstairs and found an old man turning a crank, 
which was connected with tlie machine by the string. This old fellow 
had been there all the time turning this crank, while Redhefifer pre- 
tended his machine was running of itself Fulton and his fi'iends ran 
back to the machine-room, but somebody had told the impostor, Red- 
heffer, and he had run away and was never heard of after that. 

Mr. Fulton was not only a machinist and a great inventor, but he was 
also a wise statesman. While he was in France, he wrote letters to 
Minister Carnot and tried to persuade him to adopt the principles of 
"Free Trade" as the best means for increasing the trade of that nation. 
When he came back to Philadelpliia, lie urged the people to buy pic- 
tures painted by their own great artist. West, in London ; and when they 
refused to do it, he bought two of them himself, because he felt that 
America ouglit to have some of the work of her greatest artist. These 
pictures, when he died, he willed, with other fine works, to the Academy 
of Art, in New York, where they may now be seen. He delighted to 
encourage and aid young Americans who sliowed talent in any line. 

One of Fulton's greatest friends was the wise and good Di-. 
Franklin, of whom we have told you in a previous chapter in this 
book, and many are the pleasant winter evenings Fulton spent 
with Dr. Franklin in explaining his inventions and experiments; for 
you must remember that besides the steamboat and the torpedoes, 
which were his great inventions, he still found time for planning out 
float-docks and many other improvements and inventions for the good of 
trade and convenience in his native country. With it all, he was so 
modest and quiet that, while lie lived, very few people kncAv or thought 
of what a great man he was until he was taken away by sudden 
death, in the year 1815, when he was only fifty years of age. After his 
death great steamers were built to cross the ocean, and locomotives were 
made to pull railroad trains over the world. 

10 



146 



ROBERT FULTON. 



We cannot lionor Eobert Fulton's memory too mucli. If he had not 
lived, perhaps to-day we would travel by sailing vessels, taking weeks 
of time instead of only a few days to cross the ocean. And but for 
him, perhaps, even the railroads would not be in use; foi', while he did 
not invent the railway locomotive, he built the first successful steam- 
boat and made all the world recognize that steam could be used to give 
us faster modes of travel. Not only America, but evciy country in the 




U.S. Al AN OP War ' ~—^-= 

•BuiLT-/^OR-E;(hiBiT- AT- WoKLdsFaiR 



MODEL OF A MODERN U. S. MAN OP WAR. 



world is indebted to Robert Fulton for teaching them this important 
truth. 

Ilis life furnishes an interesting lesson to every ambitious and honest 
boy, however poor. There are other things more wonderful than the steam- 
boat yet to be invented ; and as simple little things, as Eobert Fulton's 
paddles on the old ilat-boat, when he went fishing as a boy, will teach 
the boys of to-day how to do them. Then keep your eyes open and 
study the whys and wherefores of little things. Be a studious boy, as 
Robert Fulton was, and you may also become a great and useful man to 
your country and to mankind. 



STORY OF THE BENEVOLENT LIFE OF 

George Peabody, 

Our First Great Phi=lan=thro=pist. 




DO my little friends under- 
stand what a philan- 
thropist is? He is a man who 
gives away his fortune, or a 
large part of it, to he\p better 
the condition of the poor and 
give them a chance to live hap- 
pier and more useful lives. 

Would you like to know about 
the tirst man who l)ecame a 
great philanthropist in America, 
and to know how he did so 
much for the benefit of man- 
kind ? I will tell you, for his 
story is a very interesting one, 
and the reading of it may be 
the means of inducing other 
boys to do likewise. Perhaps 
you think that this great phi- 
lanthropist, who gave away mil- 
lions of dollars, was rich when he was born, and that he was raised by 
kind and indulgent parents, who gave him everything he wanted and sent 
him to school until he was a grown man, that he might train his mind 
and heart for the great work which he did in life. This is, no doubt, 
what George Peabody deserved to have had done for him; but perhaps 

(147) 



GEORGE PEABODY. 



148 GEORGE PEABODY. 

if it had been clone, it would have made him selfish and spoiled him for 
usefidness to his fellow-men. However this may be, we will tell you the 
story just as it happened, and leave you to draw the lessons from his life. 

In the year 1795, when George Washington was serving his second 
term as President of the United States, and Robert Fulton, about whom 
you have just read in the previous chapter, was living in France, thinking 
about making the first steamboat, a little baby boy was born in Danvers, 
Massachusetts, on the eighteenth day of Februaiy. They called his 
name George. His father, Mr. Peabody, was a very poor man. George 
was sent to school in Danvers, where he learned to read and wiitc, and 
began to study arithmetic. But when he was eleven years of age his 
father became so j^oor that he had to tell George he could not go to 
school any longer. So he was apprenticed to Mr. Sylvester Proctor, who 
kept a country store at Danvers, and who agreed to teach George how to 
be a merchant. In this way George earned his board and clothes, and 
Mr. Proctor paid his father a few dollars a year for his services. 

George stayed in Mr. Proctor's store for five years, and by the end of 
that time, though he was only about sixteen years old, he had learned 
all that Mr. Proctor could teach him about the business. He knew very 
much about goods, was so correct in keeping accounts, and so polite to 
those who came to buy, that he was consideied a I'eal good merchant, 
and everybody who came to the store was his I'riend. They all said when 
they bought anything from Geoi-ge Peabody, they knew it was exactly 
what he represented it to be. He was never known to cheat or to tell a 
falsehood about anything he sold. 

When George Peabody was sixteen years old, his older brother, David, 
invited him to come to Newbui-yport and clerk in his store. David was 
considerably older than George, and, by hard work, saved money enough 
to start for himself a nice dry goods store in Newburyport; so George 
went to clerk for his brother. Newburyport was a much larger town than 
Danvers, and the new clerk thought he was quite fortunate in getting 
the position. 

Besides, he now knew so much about selling goods that his brother 
could afford to pay him better wages, and his father permitted him to 
keep it all for himself. All these things made George more attentive to 
his duties than ever. 



GEORGE PEABODY. 149 

The other merchants soon noticed how smart he was, and they also 
noticed that he did not spend his time around the taverns and had 
none of the ugly habits common to other young men. In a little while 
he was one of the best-known and best-liked young men in the neigh- 
borhood. 

George was beginning to think this was the place for him to settle 
down and grow up as a merchant, and he was quite pleased with the 
prospect before him. But there was a sad experience awaiting him, 
which came very suddenly, as such things generally do. One morning 
the people were awakened very early by the ringing of tire-bells. George 
jumped out of bed and looked out of his window and saw the smoke 
rising black and dense in the direction of his brother's store. 

He and his brother quickly hurried down to the place, where a great 
crowd of people had already gathered before them, and they found, indeed, 
that it was his brother's store wrapped in flames. It was but a little while 
until everything was burned up, and his poor brother was almost heart- 
broken at the loss of his many years' savings, for you know there were 
very few people in those days, indeed, if there were any in tliis country, 
who insured their goods and stores as they do now against loss by fire. 

Several of the merchants in the town offered George emi^loyment in 
their stores, for they knew him to be one of the best clerks in the town. 
But, while he was waiting to decide the matter, he received a letter from 
his uncle, John Peabody, who lived in Georgetown, District of Columbia, 
whicli is now a suburb of our great capital city, Washington. This 
uncle had a dry goods store, and, when he heard of the fire, he at once 
wrote George to come down and clerk for him. 

The thought of a trip to Washington City was quite an attraction to 
the young man of seventeen years, who had never been in the far South, 
as they then considered Washington ; in fact, he had never traveled out 
of the State of Massachusetts. 

So after thanking the merchants for their kind offers to give him 
employment, and bidding his many friends good-by, he took a ship and 
sailed down the Atlantic Ocean to the mouth of the Potomac River, and 
then up the Potomac River to the city of Washington. 

This was a great trip, lasting several days, and George thought the 
world was a great deal larger than he had ever imagined it to be ; but 



150 GEORGE PEABODY. 

you must not suppose he was as ignorant at this time as when he left 
school, a little boy of eleven years, for, besides learning so much about 
business, he had also been reading good books and improving his mind 
in every way he could. 

George was gladly welcomed at his uncle's house, and his uncle was 
so pleased with him, after a short trial, that he turned over his business 
entirely to him, and, furthermore, had it run in George's name instead of 
his own. Of course, the young man felt flattered at this, but he afterward 
had much cause to regret it ; for he learned that his uncle was not only 
a very poor business man, but that he was far in debt. 

George remained with him two years, when he saw that he could never 
do any good in managing his uncle's store. Try as hard as he might, 
and no matter how well he managed, his uncle was always doing some- 
thing which would use up all the money they made and kept them 
always in debt. He thei-efore determined to resign, that is, give up his 
employment with his uncle, which he did. 

Soon after George left his uncle's stoi-e, a man by the name of Elisha 
Riggs sent for him. Mr. Eiggs had just opened a wholesale dry goods 
house in Georgetown. He brought over silks and very fine goods from 
England and also bought goods from Philadelphia and New York, which 
he sold to merchants in Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana and 
other States, some of which were very little settled. 

Ml-. Eiggs told George that he wanted an active, energetic young man 
w^ho knew about goods and would be able to buy and sell them, and, 
furthermore, that he should perhaps want to send him occasionally into 
the other States to dispose of his goods. George liked this idea very 
much, for it would give him an opportunity to learn about other sections 
of the country and other people, so he accepted Mr. Eiggs' offer and 
entered, as he always did before, with all his heart and soul into the 
work. 

There were many things about the wholesale business which he had 
never learned in a retail store ; but it was only a little while until he 
had mastered everything, and Mr. Eiggs found him so bright and atten- 
tive to his duties that he made him his manager, when he was a little 
over nineteen years of age. 

George succeeded so well that Mr. Eiggs was not only satisfied, but, 



GEORGE PEABODY. 151 

after a few months' trial, invited George to his home one day, and, after 
they had eaten dinner together, astonished the young man by saying he 
wanted to make him his partner in business. 

George told him how much he was pleased at being thought worthy 
of becoming a i)artner in the tirm, but he said there were two things to 
prevent his doing so : First, he had no money with which to buy an 
interest, and, second, he was not yet twenty years of age, so he could not 
become legally responsible with Mr. Riggs for the acts of the firm. 

Mr. Riggs smilingly patted the young man on the shoulder and said 
in a kind, fatherly way, " I know all that, George, but you see I am 
taking the risk, so you need have no fears as to the money. Besides," 
continued Mr. Riggs, " if you manage the business well, your i)art of the 
profits will soon pay for your interest, and by that tim'e you will be old 
enough to become a lawful partner." 

. It is no wonder, that after such kind and generous treatment, George 
Pcabody worked both night and day to make the business a great success. 
He said, in after-life, that he wasn't half so anxious to make money for 
himself as to keep Mr. Riggs from feeling he had made a mistake in 
placing so much confidence in him and giving him so great an 
oi)portunity. 

Thus, before he was twenty years of age, George Peabody was going to 
New York and Philadeliiliia, to buy the goods for the new firm. He also 
traveled on horseback, going into the wild regions of other States to look 
after the interests of the firm, which was now called by the name of 
"Riggs & Peabody," and was spreading its trade that was growing 
very rapidly in the States where it had never gone before. 

All of this, Mr. Riggs freely admitted, was due to the wise manage- 
ment and watchful care of bis young partner. In 1815 the business 
was found to be so extensive that it was thought necessary to remove it 
to Baltimore, where they would have better and quicker means of shipping 
their goods. 

By this time George bad also noticed that very many of the country 
merchants were in the habit of letting the firm keep all of the ready 
money which they had and did not need in their business, and, in this 
way, they had always on hand a large amount of money belonging to 
the merchants who bought from them. 



152 GEORGE PEABODY. 

This was because the merchants felt that it was not safe to keep it in 
their country stores, and tliere were no banks convenient for them to put 
it in. Hence they let Kiggs & Peabody keep their money. George, 
whose eyes were always open for opportunities for making money, called 
Mr. Kiggs' attention to this, and said they might just as well start a 
banking business in connection with their business as merchants. 

Mr. Riggs agreed, and that is how George Peabody commenced as a 
banker, just before he was twenty-one years of age. lie had never had 
any experience in banking, but, as everybody now knows, he became 
one of the greatest bankers in the world. 

It was not long after Mr. Peabody went to Baltimore before he was, 
as he had been everywhere else, noted for his good judgment, his 
politeness and his kindness to everybody. His character was so good 
that the Legislature of Maryland made his bank the financial agent 
of the State; that is, Higgs & Peabody had charge of all of the State's 
money, and when the State wanted to borrow or lend money, it was done 
through Mr. Peabody's bank. 

The film of Eiggs & Peabody grew so fast that, in 1822, they had to 
establish branches in Philadeli)hia and Xew York, so that Mr. Peabody 
divided his time between their headquarters in Baltimore and the branch 
stores in the two other cities. 

In a few years their business with England became so great that he 
had to make trips across the ocean. He went for the first time in 1827, 
and for the next ten years he crossed back and forth two or three times 
almost every year. 

In 1829, Mr. Eiggs, being rather an old man, concluded to withdraw 
from the firm and relieve himself from the business cares. He therefore 
took out a very large sum of money, several times as great as the sum 
he put in, and still left a considerable sum belonging to him in the 
business. The name of the firm was then changed from " Eiggs & 
Peabody " to " Peabody, Eiggs & Co." 

In 1836, Mr. Peabody found it was necessary for him to have a branch 
house in London, as he was kept so much of his time on the ocean, going 
back and forth, and he had to buy almost all the fine goods used in this 
country in London, because we were not then, you know, a manufac- 
turing people. The London house was opened in 1836, and the next 



GEORGE PEABODY. 153 

year, Mr. Peabody, who was then forty-two years old, removed to 
London, and remained there most of the time for the baUmce of his 
life, though he was in America many times, and always claimed 
America as his home. 

It was lucky for the American people that Mr. Peabody did go to 
London to live, because this same year, 1837, there came a great 
tinancial panic : That means the merchants were broken up, the banks 
were failing, and the people were unable to pay their debts ; and the 
English people who had sold to the merchants in this country became 
very much alarmed, and got their money out of the country anyway they 
could, no matter how many people it caused to fail. 

Mr. Peabody by this time had made many acquaintances among the 
leading business men and bankers in London, and they invited him into 
the great London bank, known as the Bank of England, which is still 
the largest banking-house in the world, and asked him a great many 
questions about America. He explained everything to them in such a 
manner that they had more confidence in our people, and hundreds of 
merchants were saved from failure by Mr. Peabody's influence. 

In the meantime, the business of Peabody, Riggs & Co. grew larger 
than ever. They now had many ships carrying their goods from England 
to America, and bringing back such American goods as sold best in 
England. George Peabody seemed to know just what and when to buy 
for both countries, and the firm grew rich very fast. Any merchant can get 
rich if he knows just what to buy and when to buy it, and when and 
where to sell. Good judgment is worth more than money in business. 

The merchants on both sides of the Atlantic began to leave large sums 
of money in Mr. Peabody's hands, just as the country merchants had 
left it in his hands when he was in Baltimore. Finally, so much of this 
money accumulated, and he had so much banking to do, that his time 
was almost entirely taken up with this work. 

So, in 1843, Mr. Peabody concluded to give his time to this branch 
of the business, and he withdrew from the old firm and started a new 
one under the name of " George Peabody & Co.," which did a banking 
and brokerage business, and his dealings were almost entirely with 
Americans and in American securities. 

Mr. Peabody was very proud of his country and never let a chance 



154 GEORGE PEA BODY. 

I)ass to tell people that he was an American. In his great banking- 
house, his associates and many of his clerks were Americans. He 
represented his house as an American banking-house in London, and 
he had a reading-room in the building, and the tables contained all the 
best American magazines and newsjiapers. 

Every Fourth of July, Mr. Peabody gave a celebration at one of the 
public houses, to which he invited all the prominent Americans in 
London as well as many of his English friends, and they enjoyed their 
Independence Day just as if they had been in their native country. 

Another thing to show how patriotic Mr. Peabody was ha})pcned in 
1851. That year England had a great exhibition, something like our 
Centennial or World's Fair, though not so large, to which all the nations 
of the earth were invited to send specimens of their workmanship, 
inventions, etc. For some reason, the Congress of the United States 
failed to vote any money to make an exhibition for our country. This 
grieved Mr. Peabody very much, and he gave fifteen thousand dollars 
out of his own pocket to prepare and fit up a space in the exhibition 
for Americans who wanted to show their inventions. "Was not that 
patriotic ? 

Among other things that were shown there was the great McCormick 
reaper, which had never before been seen in England. Another was 
the celebrated Colt's revolver. Another was a lock which burglars could 
not pick, made by an American by the name of Hobbs. Another was 
Hoe's wonderful printing press, the greatest then in the world, and the 
greatest even now. He also showed Benjamin West's fine paintings, 
which, though they were done in London, he claimed belonged to us 
because Mr, West was an American. Another thing which attracted 
great attention was a celebrated piece of sculpture, known as Powers' 
Greek Slave, also made by an American; and many other things which 
beat the English people so far that they had mucli more respect for 
America after that. The great newspapers of London praised Mr. 
Peabody and his country, and said the English people got more benefit 
from the things shown by the Unitecl States than from those from any 
other country. 

You say this was noble and patriotic in Mr. Peabody. So it was, but, 
remember, all great men love their countries. It is only the mean and 



GEORGE PEABODY. 



155 



cowardly man who does not love his native land. Whenever you see a 
person who will not stand up for his own country, he is like a boy who 
maltreats his mother, sure to be mean and cowardly. 

Now, let me tell you some of the habits of this very great and rich 
man — for he was now worth many millions of dollars. In personal 
ai)pearance he was very much like many other men. His face was 
rather pale and thoughtful ; but his body was strong, because he had 
been used to simple living all his life. He was of about medium height 
and very muscular, but nut fat and chubby, like Doctor Franklin. 




THE BULLOCK-HOE PEBFECTING PRESS. 



He disliked all kinds of display, so he was simple in his dress, though 
always neat as a pin. He wore no jewelry except a fine gold watch, 
and that was fastened with a black silk cord. He thought it was 
foppish to wear the big dangling chains that were common in those 
days. 

Mr. Peabody never nmrricd. We do not know why, but some of our 
greatest and best men have lived all their lives as bachelors. Among 
them were Washington Irving, the great American novelist, and John 



156 GEORGE PEABODY. 

Greenleaf Wliittier, the noble Quaker poet, whom everybody loved. It 
was natural fur Mr. Peabody to be saving. When a poor boy, he had to 
count his pennies very carefully before he spent them. This habit clung 
to him through life, and he never wasted anything. He was not given 
to the extravagant use of tobacco or intoxicating liquors. Very many 
men in London, who did not own one-tenth as much as he, spent ten 
times as much on themselves. He was often seen making his dinner on 
a nnitton-chop and a cup of tea or a glass of milk, just because he knew 
this was better for his health than more expensive diet. 

I have already told you George Peabody was rigidly honest, and he 
wanted everybody else to be honest too. On one occasion, when he rode 
on an English railway, the conductor charged him a shilling too much 
for his fare. He paid the shilling, looked very coldly at the man, and 
asked him his name and address. The conductor pretended to be offended 
at this, but that made no difference to Mr. Peabody, When he got off 
the train, he went straight to the directors of the railroad and told them 
what the conductor had done, and had him discharged. 

Mr. Peabody said he did not mind paying the shilling himself, because 
he could afford to do it; but the man was, no doubt, cheating many 
travelers just as he had done him, and others coidd not afford to be 
robbed of their money. Now, if any of my little readers think Mr. 
Peabody did wrong in this, they are mistaken. He did exactly right. 
Perhaps the conductor thought he was mean and spiteful for having him 
discharged, but I will prove to you that he was, on the contrary, the 
most liberal man in the world. 

As far back as 1835, Mr. Peabody gave to the State of Maryland the 
sum of two hundred tliousand dollars, for which the Legislature sent him 
a vote of thanks. This was his first large gift. In 1852, when Di'. Elisha 
Kent Kane, the great Arctic explorer, of whom you have no doubt heard, 
was sent into the cold regions of the North to hunt for Sir John 
Franklin, Mr. Peabody gave ten thousand dollars to he\]) in this great 
undertaking. 

The same year he concluded to build a library and to stock it with 
books in his old home down in Danvers, Massachusetts. So he gave thirty 
thousand dollars to build this library, in order that the people and the 
boys and girls of his old town might have better opportunities than he 



GEORGE PEABODY. 



157 



had when a boy fur studying and reading good books. Later on in his 
life he gave one hundred and seventy thousand dollars more, making 
two hundred thousand dollars in all to the Peabody Institute atDanvers. 
Afterwards he gave fifty thousand dollars to build another such insti- 
tution in North Danvers. You know the Bible tells us that charity begins 
at home, so the first great gift that Mr. Peabody made was to the State 
of Maryland, which had been his home when he began his career as 




MEMOEIAL HALL, HARVARD COLLEGE. 
Harvard College received the gift of $150,000 from George Peabody. 

a great merchant, and now he had given two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars in all to the little city of Danvers, where he was born. 

In 1857 Mr. Peabody visited the United States again, and spent a 
while in his home city, Baltimore, Maryland. This he loved next to 
Danvers, the town where he was born. So he gave to Baltimore three 
hundred thousand dollars to build a great library and institution of 
learning. They named it the Peabody Institute, as had been done in 
Danvers. Afterwards, Mr. Peabody saw that the great city of Baltimore 
needed to have a larger institution than the one they had already built, 



158 GEORGE PEABODY. 

and he gave them seven hundred thousand dollars more to make it 
large enough and fit it up in the very best manner. He then gave 
twenty-tive thousand dollars to Phillii)'s Academy in Massachusetts and 
twenty-five thousand dollars to Kenyon College. 

Then Mr. Peabody \\-ent back to England, after having done what he 
thought he ought to do for his native land at that time; he turned his 
attention to the i)oor people in London. He went around among the tene- 
ment-houses and saw how sometimes a large family lived in one miser- 
able little hot room where the air could hardly get in. He noticed what 
poor food they ate, and how pale and sickly the children looked, and his 
great heart was moved with pity for them. 

So he went out into difl'erent parts of the city where it was cool and 
airy and he V)uilt great rows of comfortable houses and gave three 
millions of dollars. You may understand how much this was if you 
remember it takes ten hundred thousand dollars to make a million. 
These liouses that Mr. Peabody built for the })0()r jicojile furnished com- 
fortable homes to over twenty thousand persons; and the poor ])C(i]ile 
in London bless his name above all other good men who have helped them 
in their distress. Many of them do not even know but that he was an 
Englishnmn; but everyone knows the name of George Peabody, and they 
love him as, perhaps, they love no other man. 

Queen Victoria, the great Queen of England, was so thankful to Mi-. 
Peabody for his I'ich gift that she sent him a beautiful letter, and had her 
poi'trait jiainted by the finest artist she could get and sent it to Mr. 
Peabody as a gift. This portrait was so large and the frame so hand- 
some that it cost the Queen forty thousand dollars. It was the most 
expensive portrait she ever gave to anyone. 

About this time the great Civil War in the United States was over, 
and Mr. Peabody made another visit to this country. He was very sorry 
that the Southern people and the Xorthern i)eople had been at war with 
each other, for he was born in the North, but he had lived and done 
much of his business in the South. He therefore loved the jieople of 
both sections of the country; and this great and bloody wai', which 
lasted four long years, had killed oflf thousands upon thousands of the 
best men fi"om both the North and the South. 

The tii'st thing Mr. Peabody did, when he came over, was to see how 



GEORGE PEABODY. 159 

the colleges were doing, and whether they were able to educate the 
people. lie gave one luindred and fifty thousand dollars to Harvard 
College and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Yale College, the 
two greatest colleges in the country. Then he gave two hundred 
thousand dollars to hospitals and soldiers' homes and other charitable 
objects. For this generous liberality the United States Congress voted 
that the thanks of the whole nation should be extended to him, and they 
also had a medal made of pure gold and presented to him from the 
United States Government. 

Mr. Peabody now visited the South, and he saw how destitute the 
people were. The rich farms had almost all their fences torn down, and 
many of the houses had been burned. Cliurches and schoolhouses were 
going to rack. This is not strange, for it was in that section of the 
country that the fierce fighting was carried on, and the South had to 
feed both the Southern and the Northern armies nearly all the time 
during these four long years. The whole country looked desolate, and 
tlio people were downhearted. 

Besides this, there wei'e three or four millions of black people who 
were now made free, but not one in a hundred of them even knew their 
A B C's. Mr. Peabody said that while they were slaves, it was perhaps 
very well that they should not be educated ; but now they had become 
free they must be educated, or the Government some day might be 
destroyed through their ignorance. So he gave the great sum of three 
million five hundred thousand dollars to help along the cause of edu- 
cation in the Southern States. 

This was his greatest and grandest gift, and did more good perhaps 
than any other. Every Southern State received its jiortion of this money, 
and the wise and noble Southern man. Doctor J. L. M. Curry, President 
of a college in Richmond, Virginia, was made agent of this fund. It 
was invested wisely so it would bring continual interest. After a while, 
the great college, known as the Peabody Normal College, was established 
out of this money in connection with the University of Nashville, 
Tennessee. 

Every Southern State was entitled to send as many of its young men 
and young women as wanted to become teachers to this college to be 
educated free. They not only had their tuition given them free, but 



160 



GEORGE PEABODY. 



enough money was allowed every student to pay his board and 
expenses until he could graduate as a teacher from this college. They 
then went back home to their States, where they obligated themselves 
to teach. Thousands of the best teachers now in the South at the head 

of its colleges and 
its public schools 
were educated by 
Mr. George Peabody 
at this great Normal 
College. 

Besides this, in all 
tlie States the "Pea- 
body Fund," as it is 
called, is used to 
help along the cause 
of education. There 
are Peabody Insti- 
tutes all over the 
land, and thousands 
upon thousands are 
being educated at 
the expense of this 
ureat-hearted, rich 
man, who was so 
poor when he was a 
boy that he had to 
(piit school and go 
to Avork when only 
eleven years old. 

]SI r . P e a b o d y 
thought at this tiuie 
of making his home in America, but the hard work he had done all his 
life had injured his health, and he found he could not live as comfoita- 
bly in this climate as he could in England, where it does not become 
so warm in the summer, so he returned to England. 

The Queen, when she heard of the great things he had done for the 




CHAPEL OF YALE COLJ, , 
$150,000 was given this College by Mr 



GEORGE PEABODY. 161 

suffering of his own land, offered to make him a baron, but he declined, 
saying he was only a simple citizen. She then offered to make him a 
member of the Order of Bath and bestow upon him the grand cross, 
which was the highest honor she could think of, but Mr. Peabody again 
declined. 

The Queen then asked him what gift he would accept from her, for 
she wanted to express her regard in some way. Mr. Peabody said he 
would like to have a simple letter from the Queen written with her own 
hand, which he wanted to carry across the ocean to put in a frame and 
hang up where the people would sometimes come and think of him. He 
wanted them to see this letter that they might know he had the good- 
will and friendship of the Queen. 

It was in answer to this request that the Queen wrote him the letter 
and sent him the fine portrait of herself, which we have already told you 
about. If you ever go to the Peabody Institute at Danvers, you will see 
the Queen's letter and this forty-thousand-dollar portrait of the Queen 
1 Kinging side by side in the Institute. They were placed there by Mr. 
Peabody the next time he came to America. 

In 1868 Mr. Peabody endowed an art school in Rome, Italy, and in 
1869 he made his last visit to his beloved America. On this visit he 
gave one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to establish a ]>ublic 
nuiseum at Salem, Massachusetts, and to other charitable objects one 
hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars. 

Then he went back to England, and what do you suppose he found 
when he went out in London ? Why, in one of the finest parts of the 
city there stood a beautiful bronze statue of George Peabody. During 
liis absence in America, it had been made by his English friends; and 
the Prince of Wales, the son of the Queen, had unveiled it in the 
presence of the people, and made a speech calling George Peabody the 
best man that ever lived. 

A few weeks after this Mr,. Peabody died in London, on the twelfth day 
of November, 1869, when he was nearly seventy-five years of age. All 
the world mourned the loss of this good man. The great people of 
England turned out to his funeral. The Queen had him buried in West- 
minster Abbey, the place where only the noted people of England lie 
buried. This was the first time that a private citizen had ever been 
11 



162 GEORGE PEABODY. 

bui'ied in Westminster Abbey; and altliougli tlie Queen and the 
English people would have been pleased to keep him there, it was not 
to be so. 

Mr. Peabody told them before he died that he wanted to be buried by 
the side of his old mother in America. So after his body had been kept 
in Westminster Abbey for awhile, the "Monarch," the finest and fastest 
warship in the British Navy, brought Mr. Pcabody's remains across the 
Atlantic Ocean. 

Before coming to land, Admiral Farragut, who commanded the Union 
warships in the great war between the North and South, took the 
American Squadi'on and wont out to meet the "Monarch." The casket 
containing Mr. Pcabody's remains was transferred from the "Monarch" 
to the Flagship of the American Scjuadron, and they took him back to 
Danvers, which he left nearly lifty-nine years before when a poor boy 
of sixteen, and laid him in a grave beside his dear old mother. 

Then the people of the town got up a great petition, which almost 
everybody signed, requesting the Legislature of Massachusetts to change 
the name of the town from Danvers to rmhodij, which Avas done. There- 
fore, if you look on your map now, you will find the name Peabody 
instead of Danvers. Peabody is now a thriving town; and one of the most 
intei'csting spots seen by visitors to that ])lace is the gi'ave of George 
Peabody, the poor boy who became one of the greatest mei'chants in the 
world, and who has proved himself by far the most liberal benefactor of 
mankind and the greatest philanthropist who ever lived, 

Mr. Gladstone, the great and noble statesman of England, said: "It 
was George Peabody who taught the world how a man might be the 
master of his fortune, not its slave." We point our young friends to the 
life of George Peabody as a noble model for all those who expect to be 
merchants and business men. 

Thci-e have been many men in the world richer than he, but no man 
ever gave one-tenth part so libei-ally as George Peabody. Of all the 
rich men our country has produced, he did the most good with his 
wealth; and he is by far the most honored rich man of the world. 




THOMAS A. EDISON IN HIS LABOf^TORY. 



THE MARVELOUS GENIUS OF 

Thomas A. Edison, 

The Greatest Inventor of the World. 



IN looking at the face of this nice 
little four-year-old boy, would you 
think he would ever become a great 
man? Yes, that is just what he has 
done; and all great men grow out of 
just such pretty innocent-looking boys 
as this. Would you like to hear his 
story ? 

After Benjamin Franklin showed how 
to catch the lightning in 1752, and run 
it down a lightning rod into the ground, 
another man by the name of Samuel F. 
B. Morse found out how to make this 
same electricity carry messages along 
the wire, and he invented the telegraph 
in 1835 — nearly one hundred years 
after Benjamin Franklin discovered 
that lightning and electricity were the same. 

Samuel Morse was a great man, but we are to tell you of one much 
greater than he, who so improved the telegraph that it would do ten 
times as fast work as Morse's machine. His name is Thomas Alva 
Edison, and he is called the Wizard of Menio Park. 

Do you know what a wizard is ? It is one that can do very wonder- 

(163) 




THOMAS ALVA EDISON AT FOUR 
YEAKS OF AGE. 



164 THOMAS A. EDISON. 

ful things that people cannot understand. Did you ever hear of Alladin 
in the fable, who is said to have possessed a wonderful lamp which he 
could rub, and whatever he wished for would come ? Well, that was 
only a fable ; but Thomas A. Edison has done things that have made 
people wonder almost as much at as Alladin and his lamp. It is the 
true story of his wonderful life that we are going to tell you. 

Thomas A. Edison, besides his many wonderful discoveries in electri- 
city, has made some of the most useful machines for the benefit of man- 
kind, and he has made more inventions than any other man. He has 
now more than two hundred and fifty patents. No other man has ever 
secured half so many. 

We can, of course, tell you of only a few of his wonderful inventions. 
But, first, let us give you the story of his interesting boyhood. 

Thomas Alva Edison was born February 11, 1847, in ISIilan, Erie 
County, Ohio. In olden times his fathers people were Hollanders and 
lived in Holland along the Zuyder Zee, which you know is an arm of the 
North Sea, running into the land. Many of them were, by trade, 
millers. His great-grandfather was born in Amstei'dam, and when he 
was a young man moved to America, and dining the Eevolutionaiy 
War was a banker in the city of New York. He died at the great age 
of one hundred and two years. 

His mother's maiden name was Nancy Elliot, whose parents were 
Scotch people. In her girlhood she lived in Canada and was educated 
there for a teacher, and it was there that Sanuiel Edison, Thomas' father, 
met and married her. So you see Thomas Edison is pait Dutchman and 
part Scotchman, and this, perhaps, accounts for his wonderful ability to 
work so long and so well and take so little rest. 

The Hollanders are very strong people, and are able to do more work 
than any other nation. It was from them that Thomas Edison received 
his wonderful power of endurance. For, as you will see, he sometimes 
worked days without sleep. The Scotch peojile, on the other hand, are 
very determined. They are close students, and, as a rule, have quick 
and keen minds, and want to look into and understand things. 

Thomas Edison showed when he was a little boy that he was both a 
Dutchman and a Scotchman in strength of body and his bright and 
strong mind. His mother had been a teacher, and it was she who gave 



THOMAS A. EDISON. 



165 



this promising boy his early instruction. It is said that only two 
months of his life did Edison attend school. 

Nevertheless, when ten years old, he was so bright that he could read 
Gibbon's "History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire," Bur- 
ton's dry book called the " Anatomy of Melancholy," and David Hume's 
" History of England." He was also at that age studying the " Dictionary 
of Sciences " and the " Penny Enclyclopedia." When twelve years of 




THE BIRTHPLACE OF THOMAS A. EDISON, AT MILAN, OHIO. 



age, he even read one of the hardest books in the world, Newton's 
"Principia," though he says he did not understand it. 

Tou will not find one great man in a hundred who has had several 
years of schooling, who has read the above learned but hard and dry books. 
This shows you how anxious young Edison was to learn, and whenever 
a boy wants to learn, he will learn, whether he goes to school or not. 
Whenever a boy does not want to learn, no matter how much schooling 
you give him, it is apt to do him very little good. 

Mr. Samuel Edison, the father of Thomas, had a very comfoitable but 



166 THOMAS A. EDISON. 

plain home in Milan, where Tliomas was born, which you will see in the 
picture ; but in 1854, wlien Thomas was only seven years old, his father 
lost all his little savings and had to move out of this house and begin 
living anew, in the town of Port Huron, Michigan. Edison's mother 
taught him and the other children at home ; but instead of having to 
urge Tom on as most boys, she had to hold him back and take his books 
away from him. He was so anxious to learn that he would spend all 
his time reading if she would let him. Often she read to the children, 
after they had learned their lessons, much to Tom's delight. 

You will laugh when I tell you this funny thing that little Tom did 
one day when about five years old. His sister tells it for the truth, but 
it is said to plague Mr. Edison now if anyone speaks of it. There was 
an old goose sitting on a nest full of eggs. Tom watched her day after day. 
One morning he found the shells broken, and, toddling about the nest, 
were several little goslings in a greenish-golden down. He wanted to 
know how it haj^pened, for he always wanted an explanation for every- 
thing. His father told him that the warmth from the old goose's body 
hatched the goslings out of the eggs. 

Next day they missed Tom, and, after hunting a long time, found him 
curled up in a barn on a nest full of eggs, trying to hatch them out 
with the warmth of his body. 

When Thomas was twelve years of age he got a ])osition on the i-ail- 
road as a newsboy. That means one who sells books and papers, and 
candy and pencils, etc., on the trains as they pass back and forth 
through the country. He liked this position very much, because it gave 
him a chance to see and read so many new books. As soon as he had 
carried his books and papers through the train and sold what the people 
wanted, he would settle himself down in the corner and spend every 
spare moment in reading. 

Strange to say, instead of reading the trashy books of wild tales, such 
as spoil boys' minds, he spent his time over magazines which described 
new inventions, and in reading books that taught him something. 
Among other books he always carried with him a book of chemistry, 
and poured over it an hour or two almost every day, though he could 
not pronounce many of the hard names and did not know what a large 
part of it meant. 



TH03IAS A. EDISON. 167 

By saving his money he was soon able to buy a lot of chemicals, and 
he set up a little experimenting laboratoiy in the baggage-car, and when 
he read about the strange things that would happen if you put two 
different kinds of chemicals together, he would, according to the direc- 
tions in his book, put them together and see what they would do. This 
amused the baggageman, and he encouraged Tom to learn. 

But the boy was not content with doing just what the book told him. 
He was always putting chemicals together that the book did not say 
anything about, to see what they would do; and about this he was 
always cautioned to be careful. 

One end of Edison's run as newsagent was at the city of Detroit, 
Michigan. He had to lay over there sometimes for a day, and he spent 
almost every other night in that city. 

Very soon he began to go to the great Detroit Free Library. Now he 
had an idea that all the smart men in the world had i-ead all the books 
that had been printed, and if he expected to be a well-read man he 
should have to do likewise. 

He looked at the great shelves of books, rising one above another and 
running the whole length of the wall, and he thought it was a great 
undertaking to read all these books, but he determined to do it. He 
concluded that the way to read that library through was to begin at one 
end of the shelf and read along to the other end of it ; then take another 
shelf and read to the end of it, and so on until he had read all the rows 
of books. 

Every day and every night when he was in Detroit, he spent at the 
library, and, after several months, they noticed that he was going to the 
same shelf and taking the books, one after another, just as he came to 
them, no matter what they were about. One day the librarian questioned 
him why he was doing that. He said he had started in to read the 
library through ; and by that time he had actually finished all the books 
for about fifteen feet along one of the shelves. 

This seems very funny, but it goes to show how determined the boy 
was, and when he once set himself to do a task he was very apt to carry 
it through. Of course, as soon as he was shown his mistake, he gave 
up this way of reading and took the advice of those who knew how to 
direct him. 



168 TH03IAS A. EDISON. 

In the meantime, Edison had been so faithful in his duties as a news- 
boy that he had made and saved quite a little sum of money, besides 
what he gave his parents ; and, when he was fourteen years old, he got 
the news company to give him the exclusive right to sell papers over a 
certain division of the railroad between Detroit and Fort Huron, and he 
hired four assistants to help him. 

Let me now tell you a trick which Edison did in 1862, Avhen he was 
about tifteen years old. By a tiick, I mean a shrewd and smart thing 
which injured nobody, but which bi'ought Edison lots of profit. At that 
time the war between the JS^orth and South was raging, and the ])ress 
every day was full of the exciting accounts of the movements of the 
soldiers. 

When the great fight took place at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, 
and nearly twenty -five thousand men were killed and wounded, Edison 
made an agreement with the telegraph operators along the line which he 
ran from Detroit, ofifering to give them a daily paper and two or three 
monthly magazines, if they would put up notices on their bulletin boards 
about the fight and say that a full account of it would be found in the 
" Detroit Free Press." 

By his winning ways, he also got the news telegraphed all along the 
lines (for by this time he had begun to study telegraphy himself by 
watching the o]>erators, and had made friends of most all of them). He 
then went to the editor of the "Detroit Free Press," Mr. William F. 
Story, and persuaded him to let him have a thousand extra copies of the 
" Free Press," to be paid for when he should return, for he did not have 
enough money then to pay for them. 

At the first station, IJtica, Edison said he had been accustomed to sell 
two papers at five cents each. This time a great crowd was waiting at 
the station and he sold forty papers. At the next station he found a 
still larger crowd waiting and clamoring for the news of the battle at 
Pittsburg Landing, so he raised the price of the paper to ten cents and 
sold one hundred and fifty, where he had before sold only one dozen 
papers. 

When he came to Port Huron, the town being a mile from the station, 
he shouldered a bundle of papers and started for the town. About 
half-way there he met a great crowd hurrying toward the station, and, 



THOMAS A. EDISON. 169 

knowing they were after his papers, he stopped in front of a church 
where they were holding a prayer-meeting and raised the price of his 
papers to twenty-five cents. In a few minutes the prayer-meeting was 
adjourned, everybody was reading his paper, and he had his pockets 
loaded with silver and not a paper left. 

Edison now had considerable money of his own, and he went back to 
the city of Detroit and walked in with a smiling face to pay for his 
papers at two and one-half cents each, which he had sold at an average 
of twenty cents each. The good editor laughed, patted the boy on the 
back and complimented him on his business tact and shrewdness. 

In the meantime, Edison had often visited the type-setting rooms of 
the " Free Press " and other papers, and at odd times had learned to set 
type. It now occurred to him that he might, if he had the types, start a 
little paper of his own. This idea he playfully announced to the editor 
of the " Detroit Free Press." The editor, to encourage him, took him 
down into the type-room and showed him a lot of old type which they 
had ceased to use, since they had bought new ones, and sold it to him 
for a very small price. 

Edison at once fitted up a ]u-inting office in the baggage-car, where he 
had his chemical laboratory in the corner, and his friend, the baggage- 
master, and his newsboy helpers with himself set the type, made up, and 
printed the first edition of a small paper which they called the "Grand 
Trunk Herald." It gave the news of the railroad men and little items 
of general news. If a man was discharged, or a new man put to woi-k, 
or an accident occurred on the road, or the time of the running of the 
trains was changed, or anything interesting to the railroad men happened, 
it was sure to be in the " Grand Trunk Herald," and in a little while the 
boy had several hundred regular subscribers. 

But the " Grand Trunk Herald " came to a sad end, and with it Edison 
came to grief. As we told you before, Edison was always experimenting 
with dangerous chemicals. One day he dropped a bottle of acid, which 
set the car on fire and came near burning up the train. 

When the fire was at last put out, the baggageman was so angry that 
he kicked Edison's laboratory out of the door, and threw out all his types 
and little printing press. Then he boxed Edison's face so hard that he 
made him deaf on one side, and he never could hear again on that side. 



170 



THOMAS A. EDISON. 



Poor Edison was then put off the train, and the " Grand Trunk Herald" 
was published no more. 

But you can't keep a boy with pluck in hiui down. Edison was 
determined to liave a newsi^a^icr, and he soon arranged witli a printer- 
boy, known as the " devil," in a Port Huron newspaper office to join him, 
and they started a paper, which was called the "Paul Pry." The boy 
from the printing office knew how to print the paper, and he also knew 

how to write better than Edison, 



S^ 




so the "Paul Pry" was a very 
^^^^^^ much better paper than the 

^H|H^^^ "Grand Trunk Hci'ald " had 

^BSSSwSS|| been. 

W^* -vV It ran along nicely and had 

^ -«,. , ' a good many subscribers, but, 

unfortunately, Edison and liis 
friend were so full of fun that 
they began to tell unpleasant 
jokes about different prominent 
pco})le, and that is what brought 
their paper to an end. One day 
a subscriber, who liad been nuide 
the butt of one of their jokes, 
met Edison down by the river 
St. Clair, and when Edison re- 
fused to apologize for what he 
had printed in the paper, he 
grew so angry that he picked 
the young editor up, boxed his ears and threw him into the river. After 
this the " Paul Pry " was not printed any more. 

I omitted to tell you before that alter Edison was thrown out of the 
car by the baggageman, he took his chemical apparatus to the cellar of 
his father's house at Port Huron. Before this, Thomas had learned con- 
siderably by watching the operators send telegrams, by asking them 
questions, and by studying as much as he could during his short 
stay in the office. I must tell you also that during Edison's four 
years as newsagent, from the time he was twelve until he was sixteen 



THOMAS A. EDISON, WHEN PUBLISHER OP THE 
"GRAND TRUNK HERALD," 15 YEARS OLD. 



TH03IAS A. EDISON 171 

years old, he earned and gave his parents about five hundred dollars 
every year. So by the time he was sixteen years old he had paid his 
parents about two thousand dollars in cash, besides almost supporting 
liimself. 

Now that he had set himself up permanently in his father's cellar, he 
concluded to add telegraphing to his chemical studies. So he bought a 
book which proposed to teach him something about it, and he studied 
diHgently night and day until he had gone through it, and thought he 
understood at least enough about it to nuike a trial. 

Not far away there lived a boy near his own age, by the name of 
James Ward, who was also of an inquiring mind, and the two boys con- 
cluded to set up a telegraph line between their homes. At a hardware 
stoi'e they found wire used to hold stovepipes in place. This, they said, 
would do for the wire. They had observed that the wires of a telegraph 
were run around glass to keep the electricity from cscajnng. They had 
none of these glass pieces, so they took old bottles and wound the wire 
around them. Next they secured some old magnets, and got a piece of 
brass, which they finally fashioned into a key-board. 

Now their line was ready, but they needed the electricity. What should 
they do to make a current, so they could telegraph ? The way they 
undertook to do it was very funny. Edison had heard that if you rub 
a cat's back in the night, you could see sparks of electricity flying fi'om 
its fur. 

So Edison secured two cats, attached the wire to their legs, and he and 
his companion, seizing them by their necks, began vigorously to I'ub 
their backs. Of course, the cats objected, and after much rubbing and 
anxious watching the boys failed to get their lines to work. 

No doubt, if the cats could talk, they would have told the boys 
they were glad of it. This shows how original Mr. Edison is, and, while 
nothing came from rubbing the cats' backs, many of his other eftbrts 
made in just such an original way have turned out for the benefit of 
the world. 

About two months after this sad disappointment, there came a happy 
day for Thomas Edison. His mind had now become given up to the 
study of electricity, and he wanted to be a telegraph operator. One day 
he was standing on the platform at the station thinking over many 



172 THOMAS A. EDISON. 

great things that telegraphing might do and how much he longed to 
study it. 

He looked up the railroad and saw the express locomotive coming 
round the cui've. Right in the middle of the track, between him and 
the dashing engine, with its flashing headlight, he saw the little three- 
year-old son of the stationmaster. At the peril of his own life, he 
dashed in, and, seizing the little one in his arms, fairly threw himself ofll' 
the track, with the wheels of the great locomotive almost touching his 
feet. 

The stationmaster was overjoyed and offered to teach Edison to be a 
telegraph operator. This kind ofier Edison accepted, and in five months 
he was so proficient that he got a position in a Port Huron telegraph 
office at twenty-five dollars per month. 

He was now sixteen years of age, and he learned so fast that he was 
soon the best o^jerator on the line. The news])apers were at that time 
anxious to get some important news from Congress, correctly and quickly, 
and tliey oftered the man in charge of the office sixty dollars to get it 
for them. The manager selected the boy Edison to do the work, and 
promised him twenty dollars out of the sixty if he got it. 

Edison did the work easily and well, and the sixty dollars was paid 
over to the manager; but the mean man refused to give Edison the 
twenty dollars he had promised him. This dishonorable act made the 
boy so angry that he left that office and went to Canada, where he was 
soon known as one of the most expert operators in the dominion. 

While Edison was in Canada, he was required every half-hour to let 
the superintendent know he was at his post by telegraphing the word 
" six." This he thought was unnecessary, so he invented a little machine 
that simply by a touch from the watchman would telegraph the little 
word "six" for liim. 

This gave him an opportunity to spend his time studying at his books, 
but it also got him into very serious trouble ; for once some orders came 
to stoj) a train that was coming. Edison was at his books and did not 
hear the order. When he did see the danger, he undertook to run on 
ahead and give warning to stop the train, and he fell into a hole and 
almost killed himself. 

Fortunately, the engineers stopped the two trains before they came 



THOMAS A. EDISON. 173 

together. The manager called Edison to him and told him what a 
serious thing he had done, and said he would have him sent to the peni- 
tentiary for live years. This frightened the poor boy almost out of his 
wits ; but just at this moment two dandy Englishmen came in, and the 
superintendent stopped to talk to them. 

While he was thus engaged, Edison slipped out and ran to a train 
which was just ready to start. He knew the conductor, and went aboard 
and told him he was going to Sarnia, and would like him to let him 
pass. The conductor consented, and when the superintendent looked 
around for the boy, Edison was gonC; he knew not where. 

Now Sarnia is in Canada, just across the river from Port Huron, 
Edison's home, and you may believe he was in a hurry when he got 
there to cross over the line and get into the United States, where they 
could not get him. 

That winter he stayed at home in Port Huron. One day when they 
could not telegraph to Sarnia across the river — the ice having broken 
the wires — it was very important that a message should be sent over 
very quickly. So Edison jumped on a locomotive and tooted the whistle 
like he would tick the telegraph instrument, making the engine say, in 
the language of the telegraph, "Hello, Sarnia! Sarnia, do you get what I 
say?" After a little while, the telegraph operator on the other side, in 
Sarnia, understood the language, and, jumping on an engine, talked back 
to Edison with the whistle. 

This cleverness on Edison's part was much appreciated by the rail- 
road and telegraph people, and they employed him at once and sent him to 
several places, all of which he lost by experimenting. Finally he went 
down to Cincinnati, where he got a salary of sixty dollars a month. 

One day the operators from Cleveland came down to Cincinnati. 
Edison was on the day force and did not have to work at night, but that 
night all of the Cincinnati office mates went out for what they called a 
jolly good time with the Cleveland visitors. Edison never drank nor 
wasted time, so he stayed at the office all night and sent in all the re- 
ports for the fellows who were off on what they called a "jamboree." 

Next morning when it was found out that he had done the work of 
several men in sending in the reports, his employers were so pleased 
that they increased his salary to one hundred and five dollars a month. 



174 THOMAS A. EDISON. 

From Cincinnati, Edison went to Mempliis, Tennessee, where the 
operators received one hundred and twenty-live dollars a month. Here 
his ability soon won the respect of some, but it made others very jealous 
of him. Even the manager himself, who was trying to make some 
invention known as the "Repeater," was very jealous of Edison. 
Finally Edison invented a repeater which saved the work of one man to 
the company. This brought the young man considerable reputation; 
but it made the manager so mad, that he made up a false charge 
against Edison and had him dismissed. 

Now, though Edison had been earning a large salary, he had been 
sending most of it home to help his poor parents, and all the balance of 
it he had spent for books and instruments for his experiments, so he had 
no money left. But he was determined to get to Louisville. 

So starting from Memphis, Tennessee, he walked one hundred miles 
and then met a conductor he knew and got him to pass him the balance 
of the way. When he arrived at Louisville, he was almost frozen. The 
soles of his shoes were worn olT. his feet were sore, he had an old straw 
hat on, and a i)Oor old linen duster was all he had for an overcoat. In this 
poor plight, he presented himself at the telegraph oftice, where they 
received him with smiles of distrust. They thought surely he was a 
tramp, but, as soon as they saw him at the key-board, they found he was 
the most exi)ert operator of them all. In a little while they had so 
much respect for his ability, and he was so pleasant in his ways, that 
they all learned to like him. 

About this time there came reports from South America that made 
Edison think that was the place for him, so with his little savings he 
started and got as far as New Orleans, where he found the shi}) had sailed 
away; and besides he met an old Spaniard who had traveled much 
and who told him that the United States was the best country in the 
world. 

So Edison decided to stay in America, and without seeking another 
position, he went home to Port Huron to visit his parents, and from 
there he went back to Louisville, Kentucky, where he remained for quite 
a long time, setting up his laboratory and also collecting ai'ound him all 
sorts of curious machines. When the other operators went on what they 
called a "jamboree," Edison remained at home and studied. 



THOMAS A. EDISON. 



175 



I have told you that he was a great buyer of books. Wliile in Louis- 
ville he bought fifty volumes of the "North American Review" and 
carried them home to his room and spent much of the day in reading 
them. After working all night at the telegraph othce, he went home 
the next morning to find that some of his mean companions had carried 
off the whole fifty volumes of books, put them in a pawnshop and were 
lying about in his room drunk on the money. Two of them had 

actually gotten into his bed with their boots 
on lie pulled them out ot bed and left them 
iNing on the llooi to sleep oft" their 
diunken btupoi-, while he 
», went to bed 

for his regu- 
lar sleep. 

Of course, 
they never 
paid him for 
his books, 
and besides, 
as long as 
he stayed 
therein Lou- 
isville, they 
were contin- 
ually borrow- 
i n g money 
from him, 

which they never paid back. He was always too generous to refuse 
anyone when they asked him. After a while they moved out of the old 
office into a new office, and they made a rule that no one should take the 
instruments from the oflice, nor should they use any of the chemicals. 

Edison had been doing this in his experiments, and, as he always 
returned them in good time, he thought it would make no difference, so 
he concluded to take one of the instruments away in spite of the 
rules. Then he concluded he would get some sulphuric acid. This acid 
accidentally fell from his hands, ate through the floor, dripped through to 




SHOP IN 'WHICH THE E'lRST MORSE INSTRUMENT WAS CON- 
STRUCTED FOR EXHIBITION BEFORE CONGRESS. 



176 THOMAS A. EDISON. 

the manager's room below, ate up his desk and all the carpet. So the 
next morning Edison was called before the manager and discharged. 
Does it not look as if the poor young fellow was in what boys call "hard 
luck?" 

He went home again to Port Huron, where he remained for about a 
year and a half. By this time he was twenty-one years of age, and he 
now discovered a means of making one wire do the work of two, thus 
saving the people who owned the wire five thousand dollars, and so 
pleased the Grand Trunk Company that they presented Edison with a 
free pass to Boston, and gave him a position in the Franklin Telegraph 
Office there. 

But the poor fellow as usual had no money. He had spent every- 
thing for books and experiments, so he had to leave home in his worn- 
out clothes, and after spending four days on the road and getting very 
little sleep, he appeared before the manager of the office at Boston, where 
he was to work, and went to work that very same evening. But the 
operators there were very finely dressed men, and they laughed at the 
young fellow, whom they called "the jay IVom the wooly West." 

He started to work the first evening at six o'clock, and the operators 
thought they would have some fun out of the new man, so they sent him 
over to the table to take a special report from the "Boston Herald." 
Now, they had gotten the fastest telegraph operator in New York to send 
the message, and had wired him they had a new man in the office, a 
regular "jay from the wooly West," they called him, and they wished 
he would paralyze him by sending the message so last he could not 
take it. 

Edison wrote a very plain and yet a very rapid hand. The men 
stood around as he received the message with perfect ease, and looked 
on with astonishment. After that they had the greatest respect for him, 
and the "jay from the wooly West " became one of the best-liked men 
in the office. 

But he began his old tiicks of experimenting again. We will tell you 
one of them. In the office the roaches were very bad, and the operators 
used to squirt sulphuric acid on them and stamp them with their feet, 
but, in spite of everything they did, the roaches would run up over their 
necks and through everything and gave them great annoyance. 



THOMAS A. EDISON. 177 

Now Edison soon tried an experiment which was very amusing to the 
men, but I dare say was not enjoyed by the roaches. He put up some 
tin strips along the wall, and smeared all over the tin strips such 
things to eat as the roaches were very fond of. No sooner was this 
done than the roaches came from all directions and in a minute the 
strip was fairly black with them. Edison fastened a wire to the lower 
end of the strip and another to the top, running both down to his table 
and attached them to a strong battery. Instantly the roaches came 
raining down dead; but the others kept coming. Every time one would 
get on the strip, he would tumble oflf dead. For a long time the men 
stood around roaring with laughter as the roaches came raining down. 

They voted Edison to be the smartest man in the lot and called him 
the e-lcc-tro-cu-tor, and wanted to take him out and treat him; but as 
he neither drank liquors nor smoked, they had to be content with giving 
him their thanks. 

We would like to tell you other amusing things of Mr. Edison, of which 
there are very many, but we will liave to say something now of his great 
inventions. His hardships were now over, and prosperity smiled on him 
ever after. 

In 1864, while in Boston, Edison conceived the idea of sending two 
messages at once over the same wire. He kept experimenting on this 
until he went to New York in 1871, and there he completed it. He 
afterwards made this instrument so that it would send sixteen messages 
over one wire, eight in each direction, and it has saved millions of dol- 
lars to the telegraph com})anies. 

He has also improved the telegraph system, so that instead of sending 
fifty or sixty words a minute, as they had formerly done, he made it 
possible to send several thousand words a minute. After Edison went 
to New York, he also made a printing telegraph which is used in all the 
large stock quotation houses. This brought him hundreds of thousands 
of dollars profit, and a large factory was built in Newark, New Jersey, 
of which he was made superintendent, and he began to grow rich very 
fast. Many of these machines are found in every city of the Union. 

About this time, a man by the name of Mr. Bell invented the tele- 
phone. That is a little machine which you can walk up to and talk 
to a friend several miles away, but it was not in a very perfect state 

12 



178 TH03IAS A. EDISON. 

until Mr. Edison invented what is known cis his " transmitter," an 
iiiil)ortant attachment which is used with the "Bell telephone" all over 
the world. 

Mr. Edison's next invention is known as the " megaphone," by the 
use of which two persons may whisper to each other a quarter of a mile 
away. With one of these to the ear, you can even hear cattle eating 
grass four or five miles away, or you can speak to or heai' the replies 
from a ship far out at sea. 

Next Mr. Edison invented the "phonograph," which means a sound 
ivritcr — the most wonderful thing of all. A person may talk or sing or 
whistle into this machine, and the sound of his voice will make little 
marks upon a roll of gelatin inside, and when you start the machine to 
moving, you can put in your ears little tuhcs which are attached to the 
phone, and it will reply back to you just what was said or sung to it. 

In 1889, at the great exposition in France, Mr. Edison had forty-seven 
of these phonographs on exhibition. There were at that exhibition 
people from all parts of the world. Buffalo Bill was there with his 
company of Indians. They got the big Sioux Chief, Ked Shirt, to talk 
into the phonograph. He did so, never thinking that it would keep what 
he said. 

Then they let him put his ear to the phone, and he heard his own 
voice speaking back to him out of the machine. He thought it was the 
Great Spirit talking to him, and he ran away, much frightened, and could 
not be induced to come near it again. Nor would any other of the 
Indians go closer than twenty or thirty feet, nor would anyone of them 
speak a word in its presence after Red Shirt had told them what it 
had done. There was another man, De Brazza, who bi'ought fifteen men 
from fifteen different tribes in Africa, all speaking different languages, 
and they got each one of them to talk into the phone. 

All the great men of France, and others who visited thei'c, among 
them Mr. Gladstone and the Prince of Wales, from England, talked in 
this wonderful phonograph, and thus Mr. Edison collected all the lan-i 
guagcs of the world in his phonograph. Then he set them up and 
charged the people a jmce to hear the voices of these strange men and 
people, and it is said that an average of thirty thousand peo})le a day 
paid to listen to the phonograph. 



THOMAS A. EDISON. 



179 



Such a machine as this has been better for Mr. Edison than one of the 
famous Klondike gold mines, for now they are put all over the world 
and are bringing him in royalties of immense sums every day. 

He has collected the voices of all the prominent singers and the music 
of the great bands of the world, and the speeches of the great orators, 
and the voices of such notable people as the Queen of England, the 
President of France and all the 
other great rulers in the 
world, so that you may 
hear them in the 
phonograjih. 

When he once gets 
a prominent ])erson 
to talk in his phono- 
graph, or has some 
great player like 
Padercwski play 
on a i)ian() into it, 
he can make this 
phonograph talk or 
])lay to another 
phonograph, and so 
he can make thous- 
ands upon thousands 
of reproductions and 
send the voice of any 

person anywhere he pleases. It would take more space than we can possi- 
bly give to tell you of all the wonderful things the phonograph has done 
or is doing, but it will, no doubt, do more wonderful things in the future. 

A great phonograph factory was built in 1878 at Orange, New Jersey. 
The people who are interested with Mr. Edison in this factory paid him 
ten thousand dollars cash at the beginning and agreed to give him one- 
fifth of all the money they received from sales. He made also a similar 
arrangement in London, another in Kussia, and another in France, and 
so on, through all the European countries. His phonograph alone has 
made him a millionaire. 




180 THOMAS A. EDISON. 

Mr. Edison and Mr. Simuis have also invented an electric torpedo, to 
run in the water and blow up ships in battle. He has also made what 
he calls a water telephone, and a chemical telephone, and a mercury tele- 
j)hone and several other kinds of the same instrument. Then there is 
the electric pen and the beautiful electric light — known as the incandes- 
cent lamp — which is used all over the world ; the mimeograph, and 
many other things. 

In 1873 Mr. Edison was married to Miss Mary E. Stillwell, a young 
lady who had been helping him in his experiments. She was sitting at 
a machine when Mr. Edison asked her to marry him, but she would not 
promise right at once, and then when the wedding-day came Mr. Edison 
was so busy he forgot it. But she forgave him and married him the 
next day. 

In 1876 Mr. Edison I'emoved his home from Newark, New Jersey, to 
Menlo Park, New Jersey, and since that time has devoted his entire 
attention to the invention of electrical machines. He has invented many 
scientific instruments, which we cannot explain to our young friends, but 
which have been a very great help to the world. 

Mr. Edison's home at Menlo Park is a beautiful place, and his library 
contains a gi-eat nmny books on science and a great many of the best 
books on literature. He also has a library in his woi-kshop for the ben- 
efit of his M'orkmen. It is said that every scientific magazine in the 
world comes to this library, and he encourages his men to read and study 
as he does. Mrs. Edison, herself, is very much interested in the work, 
and is very friendly and sociable with her old friends, many of whom 
still remember when she was with them in the shop. 

Mr. Edison, while very friendly and kind to his men, is, at the same 
time, a very hard worker. Sometimes he works for two whole days, 
when he becomes very much absorbed in anything, without stopping to 
cat or sleep. On one occasion, he locked the door and made his impor- 
tant workmen stay in the shop with him for two days and a half without 
any sleep, in order that he might carry out some important work that 
could not be delayed. At the end of that time, he sent all his men home 
to stay for two days, and he himself slept for thirty-six houi-s. 

But I must take time to tell you of one more of Mr. Edison's inven- 
tions, the kinetoscope — out of which have grown the vitascope and 



THOMAS A. EDISON. 



181 



the biograph — which takes and shows pictures so you can see everything 
in motion. If any of my little readers have not seen any of these 
pictures, I advise you to do so the first opportunity you have. You 
would hardly believe but that they were people or animals running 
around before you — every 
motion, every expression, is 
brought to you so plainly. 

Now, you will see a great 
express train come rushing by 
you, with the smoke pouring 
out of the engine ; liorses gallop 
with their riders on their backs; 
little girls and boys play in 
their yards, and you see them 
chasing each other, and all the 
motions that they make are 
shown to you in this wonderful 
instrument. One of the funn- 
iest things that the writer ever 
saw in a biograph was a pil- 
low fight between two little 
girls. 

I trust that this short ac- 
count of the life and the many 
things that Thomas A. Edison, 
known as the " Wizard of Menlo 
Park," has done, will induce 
my little readers to learn more 
of him and his wonderful in- 
ventions. He is himself worth 
many millions of dollars ; but for every dollar he owns, his inventions 
have, perhaps, saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for other people. 

The great lesson which we want to learn from his life is, that industry 
and perseverance are always rewarded. 




EDISON AT FIFTY YEARS OF AGE. 



THE EVENTFUL LIFE OF 

James A. Garfield, 

The Boy on the Canal Boat; the Second Martyr President. 



WOULD you not like 
to hear the story 
of another hoy who began 
life almost if not quite as 
poor as Abraham Lincoln, 
and was a great and good 
man, and was the second 
martyr President of the 
United States? Do you 
know what a martyr is? 
Martyrs are those noble men 
and women who have been 
put to deatli liy wicked per- 
sons because they were good 
and noble and their right- 
eous actions disj)lcased those 
who were wicked and seltish. 
Abraham Lincoln w a s 
the first President of the 
United States who was a 
martyr. You remember read- 
ing his interesting story. 
We will now tell you the 
life-story of another farmer 
boy, who by hard work became one of the greatest men in the United 

(1S2) 




PBESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 183 

States, and who was, like Abraham Lincoln, finally elected President of 
the United States, and like him became a mavtyr. 

His name was James A. Garfield. Look at his picture and see if you 
don't think he has a strong, manly and noble face. The story of his 
life will help every noble boy who wants to succeed and do good in the 
world. 

About seventy years ago, when the great State of Ohio was little more 
than a wilderness, a man by the name of Abram Garfield moved from 
the State of New York out into the wild country of Ohio and settled in 
Cuyahoga County. The name Cuyahoga is an Indian word, and at that 
time there were a great many Indians in the State. Abram Garfield 
had married, before going to Ohio, a young Avoman by the name of Eliza 
Ballon, whose ancestors had fied from persecution in France about one 
hundred and fifty years before. 

When Abram Garfield and his young wife moved to Ohio they settled 
in what was known as "The Wilderness," where quite a number of other 
people from Connecticut had recently moved and built for themselves 
houses. The whole country was covered with big forests, and the first 
work to be done was to clear away a place in the woods and build them 
a little log-cabin, such as you will see in the picture on opposite page. 

It had but one room, with a door, three windows, and a chimney at 
one end. Abram Garfield and his wife had three children when they 
moved to this wilderness, and about a year after they got there their 
youngest son was born. They named him James Abram — "Abram " 
being for his father. There were now mother and father and four 
childi'cn living in this little log-cabin out in the wilderness. 

All day long the father cut trees in the forest, or worked in his new 
fields among the stumps which were still left in the ground ; but he 
was very industrious and raised enough on his farm to support his 
family, while Mrs. Garfield, with her spinning-wheel and loom, was all 
day busy in spinning thread and weaving cloth to make them clothes. 

They had no servant, but waited on themselves, not only growing the 
cattle, hogs, and chickens on their little farm, and raising the corn and 
wheat which they ate, but also spinning and weaving the cloth, which 
Mrs. Garfield made into clothes for the children. Don't you think this 
was a very hard life? So it would be to most of our young people now. 



184 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



But they owned their little farm and house; both together, perhaps, 
worth two or three hundred dollars. Of course, they had to do their 
cooking, eating, sleeping, receive their company, spin and weave and 
make their clothes, all in their little one-room house. 

Still they were honest and contented, and every morning when Mr. 
Garfield went away, with his axe on his shoulder or following the plow, 
you might have heard him whistling or singing a merry tune. As soon 
as breakfast was over, the little fellows, in the summer, were out of 




GARFIELD'S BIRTHPLACE AND THE HOME OF HIS CHILDHOOD. 



doors, or away in the woods to pick berries, or to bring wood for their 
mother to cook with, or to carry water from the spring, which was some 
distance from the house. 

At night, when they sat alone in their little cabin, their father or 
mother would rend, or they would tell them stories about the old times 
in Connecticut or New York, or about the long and weary journey from 
New York to Ohio, and the wonderful things that they saw on their wny. 
So, with all, as I have told you, it was a very happy and contented little 
household. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 185 

Mr. Garfield was beginning to be prosperous as he thouglit, and 
looked forward to having a big farm one of these days, and build tliem a 
house which would, perhaps, have as many as three rooms, or maybe 
four. 

But suddenly, one day, Mr. Garfield came home very ill. There were 
few doctors in that wild wilderness, and those who were there, as a rule, 
knew very little about the practice of medicine ; so, after a short iUness, 
the good man died when he was only thirty-three years of age. 

Can you think of anything more sad than this little one-room log- 
cabin, far out in the forests of Ohio, with very few neighbors near 
enough to visit them, the husband dead, and the poor woman with her 
four little children, left alone so far, far away from her friends and rela- 
tives in the East? Do you not think the first thing she would do would 
be to try to sell her little farm, and with her children go back to New 
York or Connecticut? 

This, however, was not what Mrs. Garfield did. She determined to 
remain in her Httle home, and, with her own hands, try to make a living 
and raise her children. She was a good woman and had a fair educa- 
tion, and she taught her little ones and read to them out of good books. 

James was now a baby, and for several years it was a life of struggle 
and privation. She was so poor that, if she had lived in one of the 
great cities, the people would think they must go to her aid and send 
her food and clothing to help her in her distress, and so they should ; 
but it was different far out in the wilderness. 

Almost everybody was poor there, and lived on the plainest of food, 
and dressed in the plainest clothes, and there were no rich people to 
be seen. 

When little James A. Garfield was only three years old, a neighboring 
school was started in a little log-hut, and James was sent along with the 
other children. Before he was four years of age he had learned to read ; 
and by the time he was ten, it is said, he had borrowed and read neaily 
all the books in his neighborhood. From that time until the close of 
his life, he was a great reader and student. 

You will remember that Abraham Lincoln always carried a book with 
him to his work, and you also remember Patrick Henry and George 
Peabody and Thomas A. Edison, and other boys about whom we have 



186 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

told you, educated themselves by reading. Now, we don't mean by this 
that our young friends do not need an education. Perhaps all of those 
men would have been better off, if they had had opportunities of getting 
a good education in school. Garfield believed in an education, as you 
shall hereafter learn. 

By the time James was ten years of age, he had learned to do almost 
everything about the farm which could be done by so small a boy. He 
not only helped the other children and his mother, but, when they had 
done their own work, he frequently went to other farms and worked for 
the neighbors that he might make a little money to help his mother 
along. 

He had very little time to play, so he made play out of his work by 
doing it always cheerfully. His mother was a great worker herself, and, 
besides, she was a very religious woman, and, it is said, her good advice 
and happy hymns and songs always sent the children to their tasks with 
a feeling that they were doing not only their duty, but it should be a 
pleasure for tlicm to do it. 

All the spring and summer the children worked, but every winter 
their mother sent them to the little neighborhood school. By the time 
James was fourteen years old he had a fair knowledge of arithmetic 
and grammar, and he had read his scliool "History of the United 
States" so many times that he almost knew it by heart. Of all the 
books he was familiar with, he, perhaps, knew most about the Bible. 

It is said there was never a day in Mrs. Garfield's home that she and 
the children did not read certain parts of the Bible, and as the children 
grow older, they often got into warm discussions, which they called 
arguments, about what this or that passage meant. In this way Gar- 
field came to manhood knowing a large portion of the Bible by heart 
and very familiar with it all. 

In after years, when he became a great man, James G. Blaine, the 
famous orator and statesman in the United States Senate, said that Mr. 
Garfield's power lay largely in his earnest style of speaking and his 
familiarity with the Bible, of which he was a constant student. 

James Garfield also loved to read tales of the sea and tales of 
adventure. His imagination was especially kindled by Cooper's famous 
"Leather-Stocking Tales," and he used to regard "Natty Bumpo," the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 187 

hero of these five famous books, as the greatest character in American 
history; for he could hardly believe that he was only a hero of a novel 
and not a real man. 

Perhaps he loved these tales so much because he himself lived in the 
wilderness, and Mr. Cooper's descriptions of the "Pioneer Indians" in 
the "Leather-Stocking Tales" were very much like what Garfield himself 
knew about. 

He Avas also fond of reading Cooper's "Sea Tales;" and the story of 
"Long Tom" and his w^onderful adventures on the ocean filled him with 
delight, and made him want to go to sea himself so much that in 18-18, 
when he was seventeen years old, he left home and went to Cleveland, 
Ohio, and oftered to go on board of one of the great lake schooners as a 
sailor. 

It was a day or two before the ship was to go out, and during that 
time Garfield found out that the sailors, as a rule, were very rough 
men and that life on the sea was not so jolly and pleasant as he had 
suj^posed. So he decided he would not go on the lake, and immediately 
turned from the shore and started home; but he had not gone very far 
before he began to feel ashamed of himself. 

He was without money, and he disliked to go back home that way. 
Besides, like many other ambitious boys, he thought he ought to do 
something to tell the people about when he got home. So he went to 
the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal, on which they i-an boats drawn by 
horses on the bank, and he hired himself to drive the horses to one of 
these boats, lie was to receive twelve dollars a month for his work. 

Now, James had been used to driving horses at home on the farm, and 
during his trip on the towpath he pleased his employers so much that at 
the end of the round ti'ip they promoted him from the position of a 
driver, by i)utting him on board the boat to steer the boat instead of 
driving the horses. James thought this was quite an advance; but it 
proved to be very much more dangerous than driving the horses, for he 
had to stand on the edge of the boat and work the rudder. 

He had lived inland all his life, and had had no experience at such 
work. Every once in a while the rudder would slip, and overboard he 
would go into the canal. It is said that on his first trip he actually fell 
overboard fourteen times, and, as he could not swim, he had to be rescued 



188 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



every time when the water was over his head. One dark, rainy night he 
came very near being drowned, for no help was at hand when he fell into 
the water ; but by the very best of luck he got hold of a rope and drew 
himself on deck. 

Now, we have told you before that James was a very religious boy, so 
he thought it must be through the power of God that he was saved from 
drowning that dark night. He therefore determined to give up the canal 




GAHFIELD ON THE TOW-PATH. 

boat, go home, try to get an education and be useful to his fellow- 
man. 

Garfield, when a boy, also i-ead two other books which had much to 
do with his career. One was the " Life of General Marion," the dashing 
hero of the Revolution, who, with his swamp-rangers in South Carolina, 
had troubled and annoyed the British so much; the other was the "Life 
of Napoleon Bonaparte," the noted French General and Emperor. 

These two books, Garfield said, made him want to be a soldier. He 
read them over several times, and they led him to read other books of 
great warriors; but it was a good while before he had an opportunity to 
gratify his ambition to be a soldier. In the meantime, let us tell you 
what he did. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



189 



After leaving his work on the canals, he returned home in the winter 
of 1849, and entered a high school, called a seminary, at Chester, Ohio, 
about ten miles from his home. He had but very little money, and he 
and three other young men boarded themselves. They rented a room 
for a very small price, made their own beds, cooked their own food, and 
ate in their room. 

Garfield persuaded them that they could do without meat and other 
expensive things, so they lived pretty largely on bread, rice, milk, and 

potatoes, and it is said their 
board did not cost them more 
tlum fifty cents each a week. At 
this small price of living, you can 
see, it required but very little 
money to carry them through 
their winter's term at school. 

By and by vacation came. 
What do you suppose Gartield 
did then ? He was now a young 
man of eighteen. There were 
no rich uncles or aunts or other 
friends for him to visit; and if 
there had been, we dare say he 
would not have done it. Instead, 
he went and hired himself to 
work for a carpenter, and soon 
learned to be a very good 
workman. 

He did carpenter work when he could get it to do, and at other times 
he worked in the harvest-fields, and did anything and everything to get 
money for his schooling. After his first term, he was able, in this way, 
to take care of himself entirely, and did not ask his mother or anyone 
else for their aid. 

Garfield was always one of the best students in the school. He also 
joined heartily in the sports with the other young men to keep up his 
bodily strength. He was as good at all kinds of sports, and as ready for 
them, as he was for his hard study. He played ball and practiced 




,1' 



GARFIELD AT THE AGE OF SEVENTEEN 'WHEN 
HE ENTERED THE SEMINARY. 



190 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

boxing and other things that they did, and was always a manly and 
brave fellow. 

He was very peaceable too, but would not stand for people to 
impose on him. One day, it is said, he thrashed the bully of the school 
in a stand-up tight, because the fellow did some mean or unkind act. 

Garfield attended this school for three Avinters, and in August, 1851, 
he started to a new school known as Hiram College. From this moment 
his zeal to get a good education grew stronger. He soon had an excellent 
knowledge of Latin, algebra, natui'al philoso[)hy, and botany. He 
made all his expenses at this school by teaching in one of the depart- 
ments and working during his vacation. 

After three years, he was not only prepared to go to one of tlie finest 
colleges in the East, but had saved three hundred and filty dollars toward 
]iaying his expenses. Think of a young man going to school, paying 
his own way, and actually making three hundred and fifty dollars 
besides ! That is the kind of boys that amount to something in this 
world. 

In the fall of 18.53 he left his native State, Ohio, and journeyed east 
and entered Williams College, Massachusetts. Two yeai's later he 
graduated from that fine school, and straightway was made the Professor 
of Languages and Literature in Hiram College, which he had formeily 
attended ; and the very next year, when he was twenty-six yeai's old, he 
was made President of Hiram College. 

One year later, he married Miss Lucretia Eandolph, one of his old 
schoolmates with whom he had fallen in love while at Chester Seminary. 

Now, we have told you the interesting boyhood and schooldays of 
James A. Garfield, let us tell you some of the great things that he did in 
later life; for if he had stopped here, though he was a college president, 
the world would never have known much of him, and his life would not 
have been written in this book. 

Mr. Garfield continued to be President of Hiram College for five years, 
and under his wise management the college took on new life. There 
were very soon twice as many students as there had been before, and 
everybody seemed to get some of Mr. Garfield's zeal. He grew so pop- 
ular that in 18o8, when some of his friends were running for an office, 
they begged him to make some speeches for them, which he did. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



191 



This made liim even more popular, and in 1859 they elected him to 
the State Senate of Ohio, where he was a very intluential member. In 
1861, when the war broke out, he persuaded the Ohio Senate to vote 
twenty thousand soldiers and three millions of doUars to fight for the 
Union. 

This nuide Mr. Garfield so great a favorite that the Governor of 
Ohio offered him the command of the Forty-second Regiment, which was 
then being organized for the war. Many of the young men in the 




HIBAM COIiIiEGE, WHERE GARFIELD WENT TO SCHOOL AND OP 
WHICH HE BECAME PRESIDENT. 

I'ogiment were, or had been, students of Hiram College, of which INfr. 
Garfield had been President ; so he consented to command the regiment, 
and in December, 1861, he took them down into Kentucky and West 
Virginia to join in the fighting. 

There were at this time two Confederate armies marching noi-th from 
the State of Kentucky. Mr. Garfield met one of them, led by Genei-al 
Humi)hrey INlarshall, on a little creek known as the Big Sandy, in the 
Cumberland Mountains. 

Genei'al ]\Iarshall had about five thousand soldiers with hiui and 
Colonel Garfield had only about eleven hundred, but he surprised the 



192 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Confederate forces in such a way and protected his own men so well, by 
getting in the best position where they could be sheltered from the fii-e of 
the enemy, that General Marshall and his army were driven from Kentucky. 

This brilliant victory of Colonel Garfield's was heralded all over the 
North and he was i)raised by the greatest men in the army for his wise 
management and brave fighting. 

After this he was directed to join General Buell's forces and go to the 
aid of General Grant in Mississippi. They arrived just in time to fight 
the second day in the great battle of Shiloh, where the Union army was 
again victorious. 

Garfield and his soldiers were next set to work in rebuilding the 
railroads and bridges wdiicli had been destroyed by both ai-mies ; but 
not being accustomed to that warm Southern climate, he took malarial 
fever and was obliged to return home to get well, after which he was 
sent to join the staft'of General Rosecrans, who made him Commander- 
in-Chief of his staff", and he kept this position as long as he remained in 
the army. 

One of the last brave things that Gai'field did as a soldier was at tlie 
great battle of Chickamauga, near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The fighting 
liad been very hard and for a time it looked as if the Confederates would 
be victoiious. General Eosecrans thought they would surely win the 
day, so he witli Colonel Garfield left the fighting ground and hastened to 
Chattanooga to make arrangements for his army to retreat so they would 
not be captured. 

General Thomas was left to command the Union forces. As soon as 
they reached Chattanooga, Garfield begged Genei'al Rosecrans to let him 
go back to the battlefield and join General Thomas. This he did, and 
with his help General Thomas made a fresh assault for one-half an hour 
on the Confederates, and drove them back far enough to permit the 
Union forces to retreat in perfect safety at night. 

After this gallant service. Colonel Garfield was made Major-General, 
and since that time has been called General Garfield. 

Soon after the great battle of Chickamauga, General Garfield was 
elected to Congress, and though his salary as Major-General was double 
that of a Congressman, he felt that he could do more ccood at Washington 
so he gave Vi\) his position in the war and went to Congress. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



193 



Here lie was as attentive to business and industrious as he had always 
been as a boy at work, a student in school and as a president of a 
college. He had many honors i)laced upon him in Congress, and in 
1877, when Mr. Blaine became a Senator, Mr. Garfield was made leader 
of his party, and three years later the State of Ohio elected him to the 
Senate. 

But the great honor came in June of that same year, when the 
Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated him for Piesident 




THE WHITE HOU&E, WASHINGTON, D C 

of the United States over and above all the other great statesmen and 
warriors whom the nation wanted to honor. 

General Hancock, who also fought in the war with General Garfield, 
was nominated by the Democratic Party for the same ofiice ; but General 
Garfield was elected. In a little while, he removed with his family from 
Ohio to the White House at Washington. Was not this a great step-up 
from his early home ? 

Some of Mr. Garfield's veiy worst enemies were the greatest men of 
the nation. By that we do not mean the best men. but they were 
brilliant and learned, and shrewd men, and great politicians, like Mr. 

13 



194 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Conklingof New York. Mr. Conklingdid everytliing hecould tomake Pres- 
ident Garfield unliappy, and to throw all the difficulties possible in his way. 

But, finally, Mr. Conkling found out that he could not control the 
Senators as he tried to do, so he and Mr. Piatt, another Senator from 
New York, resigned their places in the United States Senate and went 
away. These things made a great commotion among the political men, 
and perhaps was the cause of the tragedy which followed. 

Mr. Garfield had been in office only a few months, and on July 2, 
1881, he and his family rose eaily at the White House and went to the 
railway station to take the train for Massachusetts. Mr. Garfield was go- 
ing back to Williams College to attend the closing exercises of that school, 
and several members of his cabinet and their friends were going with him. 

James G. Blaine, the great Maine statesman and orator, was his 
Secretary of State, and rode beside President Garfield to the dejiot. 
Mrs. Garfield, who had been at Long Branch, 'New Jersey, where she had 
gone to cure herself of malarial fever, was to join them at New York. 
A fine private car was waiting for the President and his party. 

Presently the carriage drove n\) to the door, and President Garfield 
and Secretary Blaine came out smiling to the crowd that stood around, 
looking very happy. They passed inside the door of the waiting-room. 
A slender middle-aged man had for some time been walking nervously 
uj) and down the room. As the President and Mr. Blaine came uj), he 
quickly drew a pistol from his ])ocket and, taking deliberate aim, shot 
the President in the shoulder. Mr. Garfield turned quickly to see who had 
shot him, when the assassin fired again, and the President sank to the 
floor, the blood gushing from his side. Secretary Blaine sprang for 
the murderer, but others caught him, and Mr. Blaine went back to 
the President's side. 

They lowered Mr. Garfield on a mattress and carried him swiftly to the 
White House, where he quickly gave orders that a message should be 
sent to Mrs. Garfield and ask her to come home immediately. Mr. Gar- 
field's message was: "Tell her I am seriously hurt, but I am myself, and 
hope she will come to me soon. I send her my love." 

That evening Mrs. Garfield was at her husband's side. For almost 
three months the brave, strong man struggled between life and death 
through the hot summer days. At last he was removed to Elbei'on, on 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



195 



the ocean shore near Long Brand i, Xcw Jersey, and placed in a cottage 
where the cooling breezes of the sea brought him much relief, and it was 
hoped would save his life ; but it was not to be. 

President Garfield died at night, September 19th, almost without a strug- 
gle. The news was Hashed all over the world by telegraph wires, and nearly 
every town and all the cities in the United States were drai)ed in mourning. 

The President's remains were taken back to Washington, where gieat 
crowds of people viewed them, and thousands of faces were wet with 
teai's as they passed his cothn. The sad funeral procession then moved 
slowly to Cleveland, Ohio, Avhere a splendid tomb w-as prepared on the 
shores of Lake Erie, not far from his old home, and it was there they 
laid him down to rest. All along the way, the moving train passed 
through lines of sorrowful-faced people, who stood with uncovered heads 
and with tearful eyes as the train moved by. \n the House of Kepre- 
sentatives at Washington, a few months later. Secretary Blaine delivered 
a great si)ecch in praise of the dead President. 

The vile man, Charles J. Guitcau, who killed the President, was one 
of the displeased politicians, who i)i'etended to think that Mr. Gaifield 
had done wrong in not giving him and certain other members of his 
l)arty ai){)ointments. He was tried before the court of the land and 
hanged in January, 1882. 

If you should go to Washington, D. C, you may see in the waiting- 
room, at the depot where President Garfield was shot, a stone tablet, a 
picture of which we show. It is worked in the floor right at the spot 
where he stood when the fatal shot was fired. 







\. \^r"'\ 



LZZli; 



%I 



WAS SHOT. 



THE INTERESTINQ LIFE OF 

Cyrus W. Field, 

The Persevering Boy. The Man Who Laid the Atlantic Cable. 



land 
to w 



SUPPOSE you, my 
young friend, were 
in England and your 
niotlier and father were 
in America, and you 
should become sudden- 
ly very ill, or something 
should ha])pen to you 
that you wanted them 
to know ahout that very 
same day; how do you 
supjwse you could get 
word to them? 

You know it is about 
thi'ee thousand miles 
across the Atlantic 
Ocean, and the fastest 
steamships in the world 
require six or seven 
days to run aci'oss. That 
is the quickest time in 
which anybody can get 
from the shores of Eng- 
to the hai'bor and land in New York. But you would not have 
ait so long to make known to your jjarents the thing you want to 

(190) 




CYRUS W. FIELD. 



CYRUS W. FIELD. 197 

tell them. With a few dollars, you could send down to the telegraph 
office, and in less than one hour your message would be across the ocean. 

Now would you not like to hear the story of the great man who made 
it possible for news to travel so fast across the ocean? He not only 
enabled friends who live over there to send messages quickly to friends 
over here, but every day, in the papers, we get the news that happens 
in England, France, Eussia, China, and all over the world, all of which 
has to come across the ocean in a very short time. It was the wonderful 
brain and energy of one man who made this possible. His name was 
Cyrus W. Field. 

Cyrus was the son of a minister who lived in Stockbridge, Massa- 
chusetts, and was born on the thii-tieth day of November, 1819. His 
childliood was like that of other boys in the town. He loved to play, 
but was always very studious. He attended school in his native 
village until he was fifteen years of age. By that time he had gotten 
a very good general education, and told his parents that he wished to 
be a merchant. 

They agreed for him to follow this calling, and they sent him to the 
great city of New York, where Alexander T. Stewart was keeping the 
largest store in the country. Cyrus at once secured a place to clerk in 
this great store, and from the first he became quite a favorite because of 
his polite manners and diligence in attending to the business. His 
employers advanced him rapidly, and before he was twenty-one years 
of age he went into business for himself, and began to make and 
sell paper. 

In this business he worked hard and was so successful that in 1853, 
when he was thirty-four years old, he was counted one of the very rich 
men in New York; but by this time his health had become poor owing 
to his hard woi-k. So he concluded to take a long rest. 

Mr. Field's physician advised him to go to South America and spend 
several months in the mountains of that country. He did so, and for 
six months traveled over the great Andes and other mountains in 
that far southein country. He learned a great deal, not only about the 
people there, but he met foreigners from all parts of the globe with 
whom he talked about other countries. 

At the end of six months his health was restored and he returned to 



198 CYRUS W. FIELD, 

North America, but by this time he had concluded to give up his regular 
business in New York and devote his attention to something else. So 
he called the members of his tirm together and told them of his inten- 
tions and withdrew from the business, for he had now plenty of money 
to live on the balance of his life, and, besides, he wanted to do something 
that would be useful to his fellow-men. 

Not very long after this, while he was thinking of what good thing 
he could do, Mr. Field's brother, Matthew, came to him and 
told him that there was a man by the name of Mr. Gisborne from New- 
foundland who wanted to talk with him. Now, this man, Mr. Gis- 
borne, had thought that by some plan they might get a telegraph wire 
across the narrow strip of ocean lying between the American Coast and 
Newfoundland, and, as he lived up in that country, he was anxious to 
have it done. 

He had heard that Mr. Field had lots of money, and he came to New 
York to try to persuade him to undertake to build the telegraph line. 
He had an idea, he said, that they could in some way lay the wire along 
the bottom of the ocean if it were possible for them to send the telegrams 
along the wire in the water. Then, he said, by starting fast steamers 
from St. Johns, Newfoundland, they could get over to London in five or 
six days, and so carry the news across in a very much shorter time 
than it took the steamers to go from New York to England. 

Mr. Field listened very attentively to Mr. Gisborne's explanation. He 
did not say much in reply because he was not himself acquainted with 
the laws of electricity, and did not know whether it was possible to 
send a telegram under water. He said he would have to think about it 
and talk it over with those who understood it. With this, Mr. Gisborne 
went away. 

That night Mr. Field kept thinking of the plan. He thought to 
himself, if it were possible to send a telegram from New York to St. 
Johns, Newfoundland, in this way, why could a telegram not be sent 
all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, and thus save the five or six 
days necessary to carry it from St. Johns to Liverpool. 

"This thought," says Mr. Field, "came to me like a shock of light- 
ning itself. If that could be done, I thought, it would be one of the 
greatest things ever done in the world. It would enable the world to 



CYRUS W. FIELD. 199 

"know everything that happened in any other part of the world within a 
very few minutes after it had occurred. Wonderful ! wonderful !" said Mr. 
Field to himself, " I wonder if it is possible ? " 

Thus he lay awake with these great thoughts in his mind most all the 
night, and it was near morning when he fell asleep. The next day Mr. 
Field went out and hunted up the most learned men in New York on 
the subject of telegraphing. He told them what he had been thinking 
about, and asked them if it were possible to telegraph under the Atlantic 
Ocean to London, if the wires could be laid. All the experts, including 
Mr. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph itself, said that it could be 
done, if they could manage to get the wires across the ocean. 

Mr. Field now thought that this was the great work he ought to do 
for the world. But, rich as he was, his capital was too small to do it 
all. He needed the help and advice of other wise men. So he went out 
and sought the counsel and assistance of such great men as Peter 
Cooper, who had been so successful as a business man and had done so 
much good in New York. 

Mr. Cooper was pleased with the plan, and he interested Moses Taylor, 
Marshall Roberts, and other prominent men in tlie enterprise. They 
agreed to put in their money and help Mr. Field in the attempt, and so 
they formed a company. 

Peter Cooper was elected President, and Cyrus W. Field was elected 
Business Manager to carry the enterprise through. A great deal of 
money had to be subscribed and risked in the undertaking, and so they 
got the exclusive right for fifty years to place a telegraph line across the 
Island of Newfoundland and connect it with one from America. 

They soon found they would need more money than had been sub- 
scribed in America, so Mr. Field at once went to England, and in 
London, Liverpool, Birmingham, and other large cities, induced quite a 
number of wealthy men to become members of his company. So much 
encouragement did he get, that even the British Government agreed to 
put in money; and they, furthermore, said they would help to furnish 
the vessels necessary to carry and lay the cable across the ocean. 

All the arrangements were now ready ; but the cable must be made, 
and they also must have machinery for laying it out from the sides of the 
ship into the ocean. You can hardly imagine what a great task this 



200 CYBl\S W. FIELD. 

was. You understand they must have a long wire which would reach 
two thousand and live hundred miles, from the Coast of Ireland to the 
Coast of Newfoundland — the narrowest i^lace in the Atlantic Ocean — and 
it must be laid down on the bottom of the ocean, where in some places 
it would be two and three miles deep. 

Tlie wire would have to be made very large and strong, and consist, 
not of one strand, but of many strands, in order to stand its own weight 
in letting it down to the bottom in deep places. Tlien, you know, it 
Avould be impossible to let it down with their hands or any known 
machinery. They must have a special machine made to let the wire 
down into the ocean. 

Mr. Field remained in England to have this great cable wire made, 
and he also superintended the making of the "paying-out"' machinery, 
as they called the machine which let the wire down. When he had 
gotten all this work well under way, he thought it wt)uld be too 
bad to let the British Government lay the cable without his own 
government also helping; so he endeavored to get the United States 
Government to help in the undertaking. 

It was several years before they agreed to do so. In fact, it was not 
until March 3, 1857, that our Congress passed a bill to help Mr. Field in 
his great undertaking, and President Franklin Pierce signed the bill of 
agreement the day before he went out of office to make room for President 
Buchanan. In the meantime, Mr. Field had been crossing the ocean 
back and forth. He visited England over forty times altogether while 
engaged in this great W'Ork, and besides he had to subscribe more than 
one-fourth of all the money that was used. 

At length, on August 6, 1857, two great vessels, one named the 
"Niagara," furnished by the United States, and the other the "Agamem- 
non," furnished by England, each with one-half of the precious cable on 
board, started from the small town of Valentia in Ireland. The 
"Niagara" was to lay its cable half-way across the ocean, and^when 
the "Niagara's cable gave out, they were to stop and fasten it to the 
cable of the "Agamemnon," which should lay it the balance of the way 
across the ocean. 

Mr. Field was on the ship "Niagara," and with him were Professor 
Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, and a number of other men who 



CYRUS W. FIELD. 201 

were learned in electricity and telegraphing. For a while the "Niagara" 
moved on beautil'iilly and the "paying-out" macliine worlvcd smoothly, 
and fathom after fathom of the great cable passed over the ship's side 
and slipped down into the silent sea. Everybody was delighted. 

The whole company felt that they were doing a great work for the 
world. But all of a sudden the brake was put on to the "paying-ont" 
machine too quickly, and the great cable snapped in two, and away it 
went to the bottom of the ocean. 

In vain they let down the grappling-irons and tried to pull it up. It 
was gone and they could not find it. It looked as if years of work had 
been thrown away, and many a one would have given it up, but not so 
with Mr. Field. He ordered the ships to sail back to England. 

They were now seven hundred miles from shore, and the only thing 
that could be done was to make a new cable to take the place of that 
which had been lost in the sea. By the time the new cable was finished, 
it was too late to undertake the laying of it during that year, Mr. Field 
all the while was exceedingly busy, frequently going twenty-four hours 
without sleep. Many of the people who had joined with him were dis- 
couraged and were abusing him, thinking they had lost their money. 
These he had to be continually writing to and encouraging. 

After a hard winter of this kind of work and making all things ready 
again, they started on the tenth day of June the next year to relay the 
cable. They carried a telegraph instrument on the ship and every little 
while sent messages back to the land and received messages in reply. 
Everything went along nicely until they were about two hundred miles 
out at sea, when suddenly this cable broke as the former one had done, 
and it was necessary to go back to land again. 

They found out later that the cable itself was poorly made, and, after 
several attempts to repair it, they finally threw it away as of no account. 
" This," said Mr. Field, "was the reason it had broken. It was not strong 
enough to carry its own weight." So he was not discouraged, but at once 
determined to make a new cable. 

Do you wonder that the stockholders in the company were more dis- 
couraged now than ever, and Mr. Field had to do more than he did 
before to get them satisfied ? So it was, and the worry he had was very 
great ; but in the meantime, he was making a new cable, and, on the 



202 CYRUS W. FIELD. 

17th of July, the great ships "Agamemnon " and "Niagara'' sailed out to 
sea again. 

This time they decided to start work in the middle of the ocean, and 
on the 28th day of that month their cables were spliced together half- 
way between England and America, and the two great ships parted 
company, the "Agamemnon" going toward Ireland with her end of the 
cable, and the " Niagara " headed for Newfoundland with hers. On the 
fifth day of August, 1858, both great vessels reached their ports and the 
great Atlantic cable was laid. In a little while the land connections 
were made and the directors of the company met, and this is the message 
they sent: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good- 
will toward men!" You remember that is taken from the Bible, and it is 
the song the angels sang to the shepherds when Christ was born in 
Bethlehem. 

Queen Victoria of England and President Buchanan of the United 
States also exchanged messages over the cable. That day Mr. Field 
became one of the greatest men of the world. He was given a great 
reception in New York, and his fame was heralded and sent flying by the 
electric wires all over England and America. Every day the great news- 
pa})ers of England sent news to America, and America sent back news to 
England. 

Everybody said it was one of the most wonderful things ever thought 
of; but there was another disappointment in store, for on the first day of 
September the great cable refused to work, and then there were people 
who came to believe that it never did work. Those who had invested 
their money again bemoaned their loss. Even in the great Chamber of 
Commerce, in New York, one of the men got up and said he believed the 
whole thing was a "humbug," and that it had never carried a message 
over the ocean and all the messages claimed for it were only tricks of 
Mr. Field and his friends. 

Now Mr. Field himself was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, 
and he wondered, if his own business associates thought this of. him, 
what would the outside world think? However, just after this man's 
fiery speech against it, Mr. Cunard of the British steamship line rose up 
and made a speech saying he himself had sent messages and received 
answers; therefore, he knew the cable was working perfectly, just as its 



CYRUS W. FIELD. 203 

owners claimed. Nevertheless, the great mass of the people thought it 
was time to let it alone. They had already spent hundreds of thousands 
of dollars, and only one or two others besides Mr. Field could be found 
who believed that it would ever be possible to lay the ocean telegraph. 

In the meantime, the great Civil War between the North and South 
broke out in the United States, so he could get no help from home. 

For five long years Mr. Field waited and worked, and it was not 
until 1863 that he was able to begin the making of a new cable. It 
was made stronger than the first one and was completed at the begin- 
ning of 1865. By this time the war in the United States had closed. 

Mr. Field concluded that he would not employ two vessels in carrying 
the cable as they had done before ; but instead, he employed a very 
large ship which was able to carry it all. This enormous vessel — the 
largest ever built in the world — was named the "Great Eastern." It 
had at one time carried two thousand soldiers across the ocean. 

On the 23d of July, 1865, one end of the cable was laid fast to the 
land on the Irish shore and the "Great Eastern" started with the other 
two thousand miles of cable, weighing thousands of tons, on board. 
Four other ships accompanied the "Great Eastern," loaded with coal. 
The immense ship moved slowly and grandly out to sea. Day by day 
the wheels turned round and round, and mile after mile of the new cable 
was rolled out and laid along the bottom of the great Atlantic. Nearly 
fifteen hundred miles had already been let out, and they were nearing 
the coast of Newfoundland. Everybody was joyful. 

At last, they thought they were about to succeed. The wheels were 
turned very regularly and slowly, so that there should be no jars or 
sudden jerks, as the cable went down into miles of the sea. But, oh, 
horrors again! In spite of all their careful watching, their days of toil, 
their high hopes, victory almost in sight, the cable snapped, and down it 
sank into the deep, dark waves. 

In sounding they found it was not so far to the bottom, and they hoped 
that they might with their grappling-irons get hold of the end of it and 
pull it up to the ship. They let down the grappling-irons, and finally 
were successful in catching it. Slowly, and with almost breathless 
excitement, they turned the lever of the ship, and fathom after fathom 
they dragged it up nearer and nearer. 



204 CYRUS W. FIELD. 

With what eager eyes Mr. Field looked over the side of the great ship 
and watched it pulling up closer and closer ! But you must remember 
that there were thousands of pounds to be lifted, and every foot they 
raised it made it heavier. When nearly to the surface, and eveiybody's 
heart was in his mouth — snap! — it broke away from the grappling-irons 
and sank again to the bottom. How disappointed Avere the men on the 
ship ! How Mr. Field almost felt like leaping in after it ! For more 
than twelve years he had been trying to lay this Atlantic cable. Must 
he at last be disappointed ? 

"Out with the grappling-irons again! " shouted Mr. Field. Again the 
great irons went to the bottom of the sea. Again they got the cable, 
and again they lifted it slowly almost to the surface, when again it 
broke away and sunk to the bottom. Several times over and over this 
was repeated ; and when, at last, they found they could not get it, almost 
every man on board was ready to die with disappointment. Tears ran 
down many weather-beaten faces. 

''No use trying to pull it up with these irons and this machine," said 
Mr. Field, "we shall have to have something better." So they anchored 
buoys to float on the water at the place that they might know it when 
they should return; and, turning the bow of the "Great Eastern" back 
toAvard the old country, they steamed away for the English shore. 

The first work that Mr. Field did, after reaching London, was to raise 
more money. It was no use to try in his native land, because they had 
been made so poor by the war that they could not help much, and they 
had never been hopeful of success as were the English people. He soon 
raised enough money to pay for the making of a sti'onger cable and 
changed the machine, so they could let it out with greater care. 

A whole year was devoted to raising subscriptions and making this 
new cable. On Friday, July 13, 1866, the "Great Eastern" again sailed 
from the coast of Ireland, dropping the cable into the ocean. 

They took with them on this trip again four other big ships to carry 
along plenty of coal, so if the " Great Eastern " needed more, they would 
have it ready. They also had on board, as they had before, telegraph 
instruments, and every few miles they telegraphed back to Valentia, 
Ireland, and received messages from the shore. 

The new cable and the new machinery worked beautifully for a time ; 



CYRUS W. FIELD. 



205 



but suddenly the electricity ceased to come. They quickly examined 
the cable and found that by some means a piece of steel wire had been 
put into the cable. They thought maybe some of the men who unwound 
the cable down in the hold of the vessel had done it, but everybody 
denied it. They took the piece of steel out, and the electricity came, as 
did also the message from Ireland. 

Then they put people to watch and see that the workmen did not do 




THE LANDING Oi' THE CABLE li V TUE " GliEAT EASTERN," i'illUAV, JULY 27, IStiU. 



this any more. In spite of the watchers it was done again, and they could 
not find out who did it. The cable this time broke, but they quickly 
caught it and put it together. They found another little piece of steel 
wire run into it. A long time after this, the man who put the little wire 
in the cable confessed it, and said he had been hired to do it. You see 
how the best men in the world, with the best intentions and doing the 
grandest work, have their enemies. The man who hired the sailor to 



206 CYRUS W. FIELD. 

do this was not only injuring Mr. Field, but he was injuring the whole 
world. 

Early on the morning of the 27th of July, just fourteen days after she 
loft Valentia, Ireland — ajid on that same unluckij day, Friday — the people 
from the shore of a place called Heart's Content, in Newfoundland, 
looked out and saw the " Great Eastern " and the ships that were with 
her coming into port. The "Great Eastern" was yet miles out at sea. 
As she drew nearer, every high place was crowded with people, and 
everybody was wild with excitement. Small sail-boats and little 
steamers went out to meet her. 

From the telegraph station on the ship, a message was sent back to 
England that they were landing the cable, and this message came back 
over the wires : " It is a great work and glory to our age and nation, and 
the men who have achieved it deserve to be honored among the bene- 
factors of our race. Treaty of Peace has just been signed between 
Prussia and Austria." A few minutes later the cable was safely landed, 
and from the telegraph office on the land, Mr. Field sent back this 
message: "Heart's Content, July 27, 18(36. We arrived at nine o'clock 
this morning. All well. Thank God, the cable is laid and is in pei'fect 
working order ! Cyrus W. Field." 

Mr. Field found that the telegraph line across Newfoundland, which 
had been neglected now for nearly six years, was in bad order, as was 
also the cable from Newfoundland to New York, running across the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. Both of these he repaired in two days' time, and 
sent messages over to New York on July 29th. 

As soon as the "Great Eastern" could take on coal from the four 
ships that had accompanied her, she put out to sea with new grappling- 
irons and nmchinery to lind the place where she had left the buoys in 
18Bo, to try to find the lost cable and bring it to the surface. For 
several weeks they grappled in the bottom of the ocean before they 
found the cable. At last they caught it and dragged it on board. 

They quickly attached the telegraph instrument and sent a message 
to Ireland. In a little while they had a reply from the Irish shoi-e, and 
Mr. Field was overjoyed to find that it was working perfectly. So they 
spliced the new cable and started again for Newfoundland, and on the 
seventh day of September landed it safely at Heart's Content. Both of 
these Atlantic cables, after thirty years' use, are still working perfectly. 



CYRUS W. FIELD. 



207 



When Mr, Field went over to New York a great banquet was given 
in his honor, and manj^ beautiful things were said about hiui. He was 
called the greatest man in the world, and many other compliments were 
paid him which made him blush, for he was a very modest man. He 
said that they were leaving him too much honor. At last they called 
on him for a speech, which was simple and shoi't, but it was very 
beautiful. Furthermore, it showed that Mr. Field was a Christian man. 



-^■-;.sys=>i^^^?^- 



:^-'*™l 




ELEVATED EAILROAD IN NEW YORK. 



and felt he nrver could have done the great work without the help of 
God. This is what he said : 

" It has been a long, hard struggle — nearly thirteen years of anxious 
watching and ceaseless toil. Often my heart has been ready to sink. 
Many times Avhen wandering in the forests of Newfoundland in the 
pelting rain, or on the decks of ships on dark, stormy nights alone, I'ar 
from home, I have almost accused myself of madness and folly to sacrifice 
the peace of my family and all the hopes of life for what might prove, 
after all, a dream. I have seen my companions, one after another, 
falling by my side, and feared that I might not live to see the end. 



208 CYRUS W. FIELD. 

And yet one hope has led me on, and I have prayed that I might not 
taste of death till this work be accomplished. That prayer is answeied ; 
and now, beyond all acknowledgments of men, is the feeling of gratitude 
to Almighty God." 

Mr. Field's great work was now ended. He certainly deserved to rest 
the balance of his life ; but there were many honors in store for him. 
The Congress of the United States gave him a gold medal, with the thanks 
of the nation. The great exposition at Paris, in 1867, voted to him its 
highest honors and gave him also a grand medal. The New York 
Chamber of Commerce sent him as their representative to the great Suez 
Canal, which, you know, connects the Red Sea with the great Mediter- 
ranean Sea. 

Many years later, when they came to build the elevated railroad in 
New York, Mr. Field was one of the great men who contributed his 
money and gave good advice in the work. So, if you e^■er go to New 
York, or anywhere else, and ride on the elevated i-ailroads, such as avc 
show in the picture, you must remember that you are under some obli- 
gation to Mr. Field for this privilege also. 

In 1880 Mr. Field made a tour around the world, and among other 
])laces he visited were the Sandwich Islands far out in the Pacilic Ocean. 
This country then was not a republic, as it is now, but was I'ulcd by a 
king. Mr. Field nuule a treaty with tlieui tor the laying of a cable from 
San Francisco, in the United States, to their country. This cable has 
not yet been laid, but it will, no doubt, be done bctbre very many years. 

Mr. Field had spent nearly all his fortune in laying the Atlantic cable, 
but it soon made hiui quite a rich man again. However, belbi'e his 
death, I know my young friends will be sorry to hear that misfortunes 
overtook him, and he lost most of his property, had serious trouble 
in his home, and died unhappy in New York City, July 12, 1892, at the 
age of seventy-three yeai's. 

The world owes to Cyrus W. Field a debt of gratitude which never can 
be paid. But for him we should, no doubt, still be unable to get the 
news from far-ofif countries for many days and in some cases weeks after 
it happens; but since Mr. Field laid his great Atlantic cable, other 
people have laid them across other oceans, so that all the great counti'ies 
of the woi'ld are now connected and we know what happens in all parts 
of the world within a few hours after it takes place. 








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